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The Library of Congress 



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THE OLD SOUTH 
AND THE NEW 



A Complete Illustrated History of the Southern States, their 
Resources, their People and their Cities, and the Inspiring 
Story or their Wonderful Growth in Industry and Riches. 



From the Earliest Times to 
the Jamestow^n Exposition. 



BY 

CHARLES MORRIS 

Author of "The Aryan Race," "The History of Civilization,' 
"The Greater Republic, " etc., etc. 



Illustrated with more than 150 Entfravintfs. 



2- C— . 



Mr 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two CoBies Received 

OCT 25 1907 

Copyriffht Entry 

OLASS 4 XXc. No. 

COPY A. 



Entered according to Act of 
Cortgress Irv the year 1907 by 
W.E. SCVLL. ir\ tKe office 
of the Librariarv of Congress, 

at Washington. D. C. 

All Rights Reserved. 



>x 



DEDICATION 

To the brave men and the true women of the South, and 
to the hrave men and the true women of the North, who 
should he better acquamted with one another; 

To the sacred memory oi the Old South, embalmed in the 
hearts of her own people, and now become a national her- 
itage of which all sections are justly proud ; 

To the progress, enterprise, achievements, and the mag- 
nanimous spirit of the New South, which rose victorious in 
peace from the desolation of war; 

To all the patriotic Americans who are proud of their 
Country s past, and her present — This volume is dedicated. 



INTRODUCTION 



A FOREWORD FROM THE PUBLISHER. 



We congratulate the public on the completion and publication of 
Charles Morris' new book on the "Old South and the New." This is 
not a hastily prepared work. The author began the task many years 
ago. The volume is the result of much patient research and time 
spent in libraries and in historical centers and localities where facts 
could be gathered from the most authentic sources and where light 
could be thrown upon conditions that had to be relied upon in treat- 
ing the subject in hand. 

Mr. Morris is a historian of recognized ability. His works, "The 
Aryan Race" and "Civilization and Its Elements," are accepted as 
authorities in universities and reference libraries everywhere. He is 
also a scientist of broad knowledge, having added many valuable docu- 
ments to the archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and 
the Academy of Natural Sciences. His services in preparing encyclo- 
pedias and dictionaries have been sought and employed by compilers 
of the greatest works of this character in America. His school his- 
tories of the United States have been recognized, both North and 
South, for many years as most accurate in fact, fair and unprejudiced 
in statement to all sections of the country. The long and careful 
training and thorough equipment of Mr. Morris for a work of patient 
research, and the painstaking care and time which he has devoted to 
the preparation of this work enables us to speak with confidence in 
recommending it to the public as the only work of its kind, and as 
most accurately and conscientiously done. 

The object of the work is to give not only a history, correct as to 
fact, but also to paint a real picture, or rather a series of pictures that 

7 



8 Introduction 

shall pass before the reader in systematic review, presenting a living 
panorama of Southern history, its people, manners, customs, amuse- 
ments, achievements and development from the time of the settlement 
of the first permanent colony of the New AVorld at Jamestown, Va., 
in 1607, to the celebration of that historic event, 300 years later, in the 
Jamestown Exposition of 1907. 

To the Southerner, justly proud of his ancestry and their achieve- 
ments, and of all people (perhaps with the exception of the Swiss), 
the most persistent lover of the section that gave him birth, this book 
should prove at once a delight and an inspiration. It is a retelling of 
the story of a glorious past that many have almost or quite forgotten, 
and that the new generation listens to as they M^ould to a fairy tale 
from the lips of parents and grandparents. It recalls with vividness, 
incidents and stories of the early settlements in the South ; the chival- 
rous days of the cavalier; the trying years and heroic times of the 
Revolution ; the peace, plenty, ideal social conditions and grand func- 
tions ; the study of oratory and statesmanship: the lofty standards of 
honor, gallantry and far-famed hospitality that pre\'ailed for three- 
quarters of a century before the Civil War. 

With even greater vividness, we have presented the story of the 
Southlands' desolation by four years' ravage of fire and sword, when 
their strong men, — and even the old men and the beardless boys from 
school, — went forth, leaving the women and children alone with their 
slaves, and fought, with a heroism scarcely known in the world's his- 
tory, what they believed to be a righteous war for the defense of their 
land and homes. A record of their deeds of valor, their feats of 
endurance, their fortitude and courage is a sacred heritage of the 
South ; and not only to themselves, but to the nation as well, which 
the Government has at last recognized by an Act of Congress authoriz- 
ing the decoration alike of the graves of Confederate and Union sol- 
diers. 

The story of the Old South, always delightfully reminiscent and 
sweet to every Southern heart, will be found equally interesting to 
Northern readers. It will please them and instruct them in many 
facts of which no historian has given so faithful a picture in the past. 
It will reveal to them conditions, characteristics, modes of thinking 
and of living that will make them better acquainted with and more 
fond of their Southern countrymen. 

There is no section of all our land so full of romance and senti- 



Introduction 9 

ment as the "Land of Dixie." The pride of its people; the varied 
comedy and tragedy of its social life ; its peculiar and interesting cus- 
toms ; its old slave tales and folklore, their songs in the sugar cane and 
cotton fields, and their merrymaking by moonlight and torchlight in 
the "big house" yard; the short gay winters; the long dreamy sum- 
mers, with leaf-clad forests and verdant fields and flowers in wild pro- 
fusion; its cattle grazing in open fields and in caue -brakes, unfed, other- 
wise, throughout the winter; its mocking-birds and other feathery 
songsters unknown in Northern climes, pouring forth their music all 
the day, and often mellowing the soft, balmy air of moonlit night with 
their soulful notes from flower-laden miagnolia and orange trees ; the 
bravery of its men with the facts and tragedies of the dueling cus- 
tom ; the home life of the old planter and gentleman with his familv 
pride, his notions of honor, gallantry and duty, with his open-handed 
hospitality, his host of friends, his gun, his horses and his hounds for 
pastimes : the sweet femininity, the far-famed beautv, the virtue, the 
soft voices, the gentle manner of the clinging dependent Southern 
women. All these and scores of other strange and pleasing pictures 
will come vividly before the Northern reader in these pages for tlie 
first time. 

But the New South, while not so romantic, is more inspiring 
than the Old. Its achievements are greater, its people are happier, its 
prospects are brighter and its hope more steadfast and buoyant. The 
incubus of slavery — a sin of the Constitution — has been taken away 
and the Southern people are glad of it. It has gone forever, and they 
would not have it back. They were not responsible for it. No slave- 
ship was ever fitted out and manned and sailed from a Southern port; 
and Southern men did not go to Africa to catch the savage blacks and 
tear them from home and family to sell into slavery. 

In the days of George Washington there were more slaves in New 
York than in Virginia ; and George Washington and Patrick Henry 
and other noted Southerners were among the first agitators of emanci- 
pation. New England and the North generally, gradually sold their 
slaves to the South, where they were more profitable. And with the 
wrongs of slavery, it is hardly probable that the Northern master 
would have been more humane in his treatment of them than the 
kindly hearted, less grasping, Southern gentleman, who, as a rule, took 
a sort of ambitious pride in being at the head of a great plantation 
family and seeing his black people look healthier and happier than 



lo Introduction 

those of his neighbor. Ihe iNorthern overseer on Southern plantations 
was responsible for the greatest brutality, as witness the character of 
Legree in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Slavery was the sin, not of the 
South, but of the Nation ; and, under God, the Nation had to expend 
a fearful price of treasure and blood to wipe it out. And the North 
spent more of the money and shed more of the blood than the South. 
The expense of the great Civil War to the Union alone would have 
paid, in money, for every slave, many times over, the highest value 
ever set by master upon him. The South suffered an utter financial 
ruin. 

The black man alone may thank the institution of slavery. 
Through it he passed, perhaps, along the easiest road that any slave 
people ever passed from savagery to civilization, with the kindest and 
most humane masters that the world has known. The black man alone 
may rejoice in the fact of the great Civil War. The negro is now 
eight millions strong, and a very important part of the New South. 
By many he is considered the greatest problem of the New South; 
and the solving of that problem must be largely left in his own 
hands. He should be considerate, patient, indulgent, forbearing, 
helpful, respectful and grateful. That he suffered injustices there is 
no doubt, but that he has received in benefits, at the white man's hand, 
a thousand fold to place against every wrong, is equally true. 

The treatment of slavery and the negro problem is made a feature 
of several chapters in this work. The predominance and importance 
of this subject in the History of the New South makes this extended 
treatment necessary. We commend the reading of the subject, as 
here presented, to both white and black people, North and South. 
Much bitterness, foolish legislation, malicious or prejudiced discus- 
sions in the press, and outbreaks of violence might be avoided and a 
growing sentiment of kindliness and friendship between the sections 
and the races fostered by a knowledge of the facts and conditions 
that have been sought out and clearly stated by the author. 

The generally prevailing political situations are discussed with 
judicial fairness as to facts, and with statesmanlike comment on their 
bearing and influence. 

Literature and education have due space allotted in the work. 
The school system, from the primitive days of the pioneer and the log 
school house to the modern public school and university, and the 
problem of negro education, are considered in an ample chapter on this 



Introduction n 

subject. The development of Southern hterature, the authors and 
what they wrote, what they stood for, and how they influenced the 
pubhc, forms another interesting theme. 

The various industries and manufacturing- enterprises which have 
sprung up during the past two decades in the South make it indeed 
almost like a new country. The Old South was little more than a 
rural farming section. Now almost every product of the loom, factory 
and forge, that the raw material of that section enters into, is pro- 
duced there as successfully and, generally, at much less cost than in 
Northern factories. All the Southern States can make cotton cloth 
much cheaper than the New England States ; and Northern capital by 
millions is annually seeking investment in Southern cotton mills. The 
iron industry is equally favorable to the South. Birmingham, Ala- 
bama, South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and many other Southern points, 
can make pig iron and pay the freight on it to Northern markets and 
sell it at the doors of Northern iron mills cheaper than the latter can 
produce it. Other manufacturing interests also find superior advan- 
tages, cities are springing up, and the population increasing at a 
marvelous rate. Herein lies one of the most potent promises of the 
future greatness of the New South. 

A feature of this work is a description, historic and otherwise, 
of the growing cities of this fast developing land. The story of the old 
cities of the South Atlantic States, with their quaint architecture min- 
gled with the new style structure of the North, their traditions and 
fashions and mannerisms of other days, intersecting- and clashing and 
harmonizing with the rushing, progressive spirit and stirring events of 
the present, calls the reader to witness a most interesting spectacle of 
change and progress. Equally attractive are accounts of the great 
Gulf State seaports and centers of progress, New Orleans, Mobile, 
Galveston and others, also the famous cities of the South Central 
States, St. Louis, Louisville, Memphis, Chattanooga, and others. 

The Southern farmer is not behind his city brother. He early 
fell into the march of progress, and has kept step in the line of steady 
advance. King Cotton, "The Snowy Monarch of Southern Industry," 
is still king, with a power that increases year by year. But he no 
longer holds a monopoly. Diversified farming and gardening, stock 
raising and fruit culture have made every tiller of the soil doubly 
independent; for the South is a land of many products, growing the 
finest of almost everything in the vegetable and animal kingdoms with 



12 Introduction 

the least requirement of labor. The rapidly populating cities and the 
swift coming of manufacturing plants, with armies of operatives, 
bring an ever-increasing market for the farmer's products, and are 
rapidly enhancing the value of his lands. 

The series of national expositions of industry in the cities of 
the South, beginning a cjuarter of a century ago with Louisville and 
New Orleans, and finding their climax in the World's Fair at St. 
Louis, and ending with the Exposition at Jamestown in 1907, have 
been enthusiastically attended by the people. Accounts of these fairs, 
and the impetus they have given to Southern aspirations and enter- 
prise, are set forth in the closing chapters of the work in a way that 
emphasizes the performances of the past, and throws an unmistakable 
rainboAV of promise and hope for a grander future to the New South. 

Mechanically the volume is most commendable. The paper, print- 
ing and binding are attractive and durable. The illustrations are 
especially excellent and helpful in illuminating the text and impressing 
the facts. The originals were produced at large cost, and much care 
has been exercised in choosing the subjects and in executing the draw- 
ing and engraving. Some of the illustrations are very rare. That of 
Jefiferson Davis' Cabinet, and others, were secured by special arrange- 
ment from private collections, and many of them were drawn especially 
by eminent artists at large expense. 



PREFACE. 



IT is the South that forms our theme, the land of the palmetto, the 
cotton plant and the magnolia, the home of the planter and the 
cavalier, the Summer-land of the great American republic. In 
this we have a rare domain of mountain and plain, of noble rivers 
and sun-kissed valleys, of fertile levels and spreading forests, of 
charming landscapes and beautiful cities. Through its w^estern 
half flov^s the mighty Mississippi, one of the giant rivers of the earth, 
while other splendid streams profusely water its smiling slopes. 
Through its eastern half stretch far the Appalachian peaks and cliffs, 
a realm of rugged mountains clad with forests of rare timber and 
rich with vast deposits of coal and iron, a reservoir of nature's 
wealth fit to enrich a kingdom. Its immense plains supply food in 
profusion for millions of inhabitants and feed with their invaluable 
cotton fibre half the textile mills of the world. Such is the South, 
a land of beauty and plenty, with few rivals and no superior in these 
double attractions upon the earth. 

The United States of America, the youngest and nobles|>a^f the 
great nations, the youthful republic that spans a continent and takes 
in its choicest section, is a land widely diversified in climate, surface, 
and inhabitants. It divides naturally into three great sections, the 
North, the South, and the West, each with its special characteristics 
and its tendency to pursue a special line of development. This is 
markedly shown in the North and the South, in which there has been 
little of that intermingling of populations that has been seen in the 
relations of the North and the West. For several centuries they have 



14 Preface 

developed side by side, yet separately and distinctively, the result 
being a marked difference in the character, tastes and sentiments of 
their respective inhabitants. Nature and heredity are stronger than 
political ties and their influence cannot easily be set aside. 

What are the conditions which have produced these distinctions ^ 
To all seeming they are chiefly the character of the original settlers 
and the subsequent influence of climate and industries. While the 
northern colonies v^ere peopled with "Sons of the Soil," Virginia and, 
the Carolinas attracted numbers of immigrants from the cavalier 
class of England, men of aristocratic connections, of education, self- 
respect and pride of station. While these were by no means all the 
population, they were enough to give a distinctive tone to the 
dominant class of this section of the South. Their characteristics 
and social prominence were transmitted to their descendants, with 
the result that we find there a distinct strain of men in whom the 
qualities of the men who fought for Charles I., inhere. 

But the Southern gentleman, as he is to be seen to-day, owes 
his character perhaps more largely to climate than the hereditary 
influences. While the latter have invested him with the pride and 
dignity of an honorable descent, the form.er have affected his whole 
physical and mental constitution. The fervent sun of the South has 
worked its way into his blood, and made him warm-hearted, im- 
pulsive, generous and emotional; with a courage which defeat can- 
not quell, a devotion to his sense of duty and honor which misfortune 
cannot overcome. 

Industrially the story of the South is notably unlike that of the 
North. Until of recent years it was almost wholly agricultural, 
while that of the North has long been largely mechanical and com- 
mercial. This difference in industries has had a decided effect upon 
the character of its people. In the North arose a bustling, energetic, 
incessantly active population, democratic in thought and habit and 
ignoring every tendency to class distinctions. In the South class 
distinction became strongly marked, not only between the whites 



Preface 15 

and blacks, but between the wealthy and the poor whites. The 
planters passed a life of leisure, in which they devoted themselves 
largely to the political interests of their localities. In this way they 
became familiar with the science of government and a class of states- 
men appeared unsurpassed in political acumen and ripe judgment 
upon public affairs. This was especially the case in the times im- 
mediately preceding and following the Revolution, when the country 
grew proud of such men as Washington, Henry, Madison, Monroe, 
Gadsden, West, Marshall, and others of fine powers — men who were 
succeeded by others of rare ability in later years. 

It was not alone in legislative halls that the Southern gentleman 
shone. Brave to a fault and with an instinctive military aptitude, 
he made his mark in every war the country knew. To the South we 
owe Washington, the most famous of our soldiers and patriots; 
Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812; Taylor and Scott, the victors 
in the Mexican War, and Lee, the most admired and esteemed of the 
leaders in the Civil War. 

There is another sense in which the man of the South makes a 
special appeal to us. He is the true American, the real "Son of our 
sires." While there are hosts of Americans of colonial descent in the 
North, Americanism there has become 70 diluted and adulterated 
with alien blood that it threatens to become a heterogeneous com- 
pound, largely made up from the least desirable populations of 
Europe. From this irruption the South has so far been saved, the 
tide having turned away from its fertile fields, leaving the population 
mainly in its pristine state of undiluted Americanism. If we seek 
the true American of to-day we can best find him in the South. 
Elsewhere he is in ^measure lost among the flood of inflowing aliens. 

Such have been and in a measure are the distinctive diff^erences 
between the South and the North. That they will continue is 
questionable. There are strong indications that the diversity be- 
tween the two sections is destined to pass away. The South is 
becoming less isolated than it was of old and less distinct in its 



1 6 Preface 

industries. One of the prominent features of the New South is the 
rapid development of manufactures upon its soil and extension of the 
railroad throughout its area. These new interests and new facilities 
of travel are bringing the sections closer together. The North is 
invading the South, and the South the North. Intermovement of the 
people is steadily growing and promises to lead to a much greater 
community of interests and opinions than in the past. This is a 
result which all patriotic Americans must welcome. The formation 
of "a more perfect Union" between the States has long been Warmly 
desired, though for years irreconcilable diversity and hostility 
between the sections seemed likely to arise. Such a condition, in- 
deed, came upon us and precipitated the most unhappy contest in 
the history of the land. Happily the process of differentiation cul- 
minated in this struggle, and since then the tide has been flowing in 
the opposite direction. The people of our land — the American 
people, that is — are growing more instead of less homogeneous as the 
years pass. This is a natural result of the increasing community 
of interests, the ease of travel, the facility of communication, the 
general development of education. It is the factory, the railroad? 
the postal facilities, the telegraph and telephone, the school-house, 
the forge and factory that are cementing all people of American 
descent into one great commonwealth, similar in interests and sym- 
pathies, and rapidly drawing our diversified states together into 
"A more perfect Union." It is an evolution full of hopefulness and 
promise and one that w^e may well wish will cement the American 
people of the future into one great brotherhood. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter I. 



THE SOUTH, A NOBLE REALM OF BEAUTY, WEALTH AND PROMISE. 

Page 
The Growth of the Great RepubHc — The Summerland of the Continent — The 
Boundaries of the South — The Mason and Dixon Line — The Extension of 
the Slave System — The Grand Proportions of the South — Its Geographical 
Character — Its Mountain System — Its Rainfall and Watercourses — States 
West of the Mississippi — A Noble River — The Industrial Sections — Negro 
Labor — A Self-Supporting Land — Its Varied Wealth and Beauty 23 

Chapter II. 
THE OLD DOMINION AND THE CAVALIERS OF THE COLONIES. 

The Spanish and French — Sir Walter Raleigh and his Colonists — The Cavalier 
Settlers — The Spirit of Liberty — The Scotch-Irish of the Valleys — How 
Jamestown was settled — Early Days in Virginia — Negro Slaves — The First 
Legislature — Self-Government — The Cavaliers in South Carolina — The 
Old Dominion — Berkeley's Defiance of Cromwell — Charles II and Virginia. . 43 

Chapter III. 
THE HEROES OF THE OLD COLONIAL SOUTHLAND. 

Tobacco brings Prosperity — The Indian Massacres — Berkeley's Tyranny — Bacon 
and the Indians — The Spirit of Rebellion — Bacon's March on Jamestown — ■ 
The Commission and the Defeat of the Indians — Berkeley's Flight — The 
Capture and Burning of Jamestown — Bacon's Death and Berkeley's Re- 
venge — Carolma and the Grand Model Government — Freedom in the Caro- 
linas — Oglethorpe and the Spaniards — The Fight on St. Simon's Island — 
How Oglethorpe Defeated the Spaniards 59 



i8 Contents 

Chapter IV. 

Page 

MANOR LIFE IN OLD COLONY DAYS. 

How the Virginia Planters lived — Their Hospitality — The Classes of the People — 
Town and Country Life-;— Home Manners — Training of Boys and Girls — 

Occupations of the People— Effect of Product, Climate and Race The 

Farmers and the Planters — The Charms of Rural Life — Governor Spots- 
wood and the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe — The Expedition to the 
Blue Ridge — A Delightful Journey — The Valley Discovered — Two Boy 
Surveyors and Their Work — Lord Fairfax and Greenway Lodge — Washing- 
ton's Journey to the French Forts 79 

Chapter V. 

HOW THE SOUTH PLANTED THE SEEDS OF INDEPENDENCE. 

The Tea at Annapolis and Charleston — The North Carolina Regulators — -The 
Mecklenburg Declaration — Patrick Henry's Defiance to the King — Henry's 
Great Speech for Liberty or Death — The Study of Oratory and Government 
in the South — Some Famous Orators — South Carolina and the Stamp Act 
Congress — The Continental Congress — Effect of Lexington in the South — 
Virginia's Declaration of Rights — Richard Henry Lee's Resolutions — Jef- 
ferson Writes the Declaration — Charles Carroll of Carrollton 103 

Chapter VI. 

THE SOUTH AND ITS HEROES IN THE REVOLUTION. 

Southern Aid to Boston — Lord Dunmore and the People — Fort Sullivan and 
Sergeant Jasper — The First Flags of the Republic — Light Horse Harry — 
Morgan and His Riflemen — Morgan at Quebec — His Defeat of Tarleton — 
The British Take Savannah and Charleston — Marion, the Swamp Fox — 
Marion and the British Officers — Jack Davis and the Dragoons — King's 
Mountain — Tarleton and the Witty Lady — Cornwallis at Yorktown 119 

Chapter VII. 

FAMOUS PATHFINDERS AND PIONEERS OF THE SOUTH. 

Daniel Boone as a Boy — Boone's Inscription — John Finley— Boone Seeks Ken- 
tucky — Adventures with the Indians — Colonel Henderson and the Land 
Company — A Kentucky Fort — Boone's Daughter Captured and Rescued — 



Contents 19 

Page 
Boone a Prisoner— His Escape and the Siege of the Fort— George Rogers 
Clark and his plan— The British in the Northwest— Clark's Expedition sets 
out— The Ball at Kaskaskia and the Capture— The British at Vincennes— 
The March through the Overflow — Clark Captures Vincennes — The Im- 
portant Result of Clark's Expedition 136 

Chapter VIIL 

HOW THE STATESMEN OF THE SOUTH LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF 
THE GREAT REPUBLIC. 

Virginia, Maryland and the Union— Cavalier and Puritan Ideas — The Southern 
Statesman — A Weak Union — Maryland and the Western Claims — ^The 
Articles of Confederation — New York Collects Duties from its Neighbors — 
The Father of the Constitution — The Meeting at Alexandria — Madison and 
Washington — The Conventions at Annapolis and Philadelphia — ^Madison's 
Plan — The Constitution as Adopted — Contests for Ratification — The Great 
Struggle in Virginia 155 

Chapter IX. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON THE IDEAL AMERICAN, SOLDIER, STATES- 
MAN, AND PRESIDENT. 

Washington's Parents — In the French War — Marries and Settles— Commander- 
in-Chief in the Revolution — ^The Great Feat at Trenton — Valley Forge and 
Yorktown — Refuses a Crown and Kingdom — Plans for Canals to the Ohio — 
Washington's Concern about the Country — Presides over the Constitutional 
Convention — Elected the first President — The Troubles of Office — Called 
to the Army again — Sudden Illness and Death 167 

Chapter X. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON ADDS NEW STARS TO THE SOUTHERN GALAXY. 

The Constellation of the South — The Discovery of the Mississippi — La Salle's 
Famous Exploration — What the Treaties did — Louisiana in 1801 — ^Thomas 
Jefferson at Home and in College — The Declaration — Governor of Vir- 
ginia — Minister to France — Secretary of State — Vice-President — Elected 
President — His Democratic Ways — Combats aristocratic Customs — The 
Question of the Mississippi — War in the Air — The Work of Monroe and 
Livingston — The President and Congress approve the purchase — The Lewis 



20 Contents 

Page 
and Clark Expedition— Three New States of the South — Jefferson's Life 
at Home — Rescued from Misfortune — Dies on the Anniversary of Inde- 
pendence . . . 185 

Chapter XI. 

OLD HICKORY, THE HEROIC SON OF CAROLINA AND TENNESSEE. 

Jackson and the British Officer — Studies Law and goes to Tennessee — Is sent to 
Congress — Supreme Court Judge — In Business — Hurt in a Quarrel — The 
Creek War — Jackson's Victory— Weathersford Surrenders — The Burning of 
Washington — The British at New Orleans — Their Terrible Defeat — Jack- 
son in Florida — The End of the Trouble — A Candidate for the Presidency — 
His Election — The Chief Acts of His Administration — His Death 203 

Chapter XII. 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE, THE PALLADIUM OF LIBERTY IN 

AMERICA. 

The Benefits of the Monroe Doctrine — Sketch of James Monroe — The Louisiana 
Purchase — Monroe as President — Early Expressions of American States- 
jpen — Jefferson's Views in 1808 — The Spanish Colonies Revolt — ^The Doc- 
trine a Southern Measure — The Holy Alliance and Its Purpose — Rus- 
sia's Attitude — Canning's Action — The Monroe Doctrine Stated — Its 
jTffect — Its History — England's Designs on Nicaragua — ^The Cuban 
Question — President Polk restates the Doctrine — ^The French in Mexico 

^They are Forced to Withdraw — The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute — 

President Roosevelt on the Monroe Doctrine — ^The Blockade of Venezuela 

— Secretary Olney's Opinion — ^The Drago Doctrine 217 

Chapter XIII. 

CLAY AND CALHOUN, THE GREAT SOUTHERN ORATORS OF THE 

"GOLDEN AGE." 

The South a Nursery of Orators — The Boyhood of Henry Clay — His Gift of 
Oratory — Clay in Kentucky — Speaker of the House — Clay's Great Popu- 
larity — The Missouri Compromise — Campaigns of 1824 and 1844 — -De- 
feated and In Debt — The Tariff Compromise — The Compromise of 1850 — 
Clay's Character — Calhoun's Character and Early History — The Nullifica- 
tion Doctrine — Webster and Hayne — Threats of War — Calhoun's Great 
Force Bill Speech — Miss Martineau on Calhoun and Clay — Calhoun's 
Last Days 234 



Contents 21 

Chapter XIV. 
THE LONE STAR STATE; ITS HEROES AND ITS MARTYRS. 

Page 
Texas and Its Settlers — Its Size and Resources — The Revolt of the Americans — 

Houston's Early Story — Heroes of the Texan War — The Splendid Defence 

of the Alamo — The Thermopylae of Texas — Houston's Great Victory — ■ 

Texas Admitted to the Union — The War Spirit in Mexico — Southern Leaders 

of the Mexican War — Results of the War — What Mexico Lost and the United 

States Won 254 

Chapter XV. 

THE NEGRO AS AN ELEMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE NATION. 

Beginning of the Slave Trade — Its Horrors — Slavery in New York and Boston — 
Slavery Unpopular in Early Days — England Sustains the Slave Trade — 
Washington and Jefferson on Slavery — Slavery in the Constitutional Conven- 
tion — The Slave Trade Abolished — The Cotton Gin — The Missouri Com- 
promise — -The Work of the Abolitionists — Garrison and the "Liberator" — 
The Economic Relations of Slavery — ^The Treatment of the Slave— The 
Compromise of 1850 269 

Chapter XVI. 

THE TARIFF AND SLAVERY THE HIGHROADS TO SECESSION. 

The Work of the Constitution — Tests of Its Strength — Effects of Climatic Con- 
ditions — The Demand for Emancipation — The Tariff and Slavery in 1787 — 
Development of the Tariff Idea — Tariffs of 1824 and 1828 — Calhoun and 
His Sentiments — The Ordinance of Nullification — Jackson Checks Seces- 
sion — Clay's Compromise — Garrison and Abolition — Hostility of Feeling — 
Texas and Mexico — The Compromise of 1850 — The Whigs of the South — ■ 
The " Impending Crisis" — ^The Kansas Struggle — The John Brown Raid 
■ — Its Effect on the South — A Republican President — The South Secedes 
— -Doubt and Dismay in the North — A Strong Peace Feeling — The 
Sumter Episode — ^The Issue Forced and War Succeeds 282 

Chapter XVII. 
THE GREAT CONFEDERATE LEADERS OF THE CIVIL WAR. 

Lessons of the Civil War — Able Commanders of the South — The Character of 



22 Contents 



Page 



Robert E. Lee— His Early Career— General Imboden's Tribute to Lee- 
Lee's Prophetic Forecast— His Simple Habits— Lee in Command— The 
Final Struggle— Lee after the War— A Touching Story— Stonewall Jack- 
son—His Life in College— His Religious Faith— How He Got His Title- 
In the Shenandoah Valley— His Services and Death— A Southern Hero— 
The Career of A. S. Johnston— In Command in Kentucky— The Victory at 

Shiloh Death In Triumph — ^The Fruits of Victory — Lost — Cavalry 

Heroes of the Confederate Army — General Stuart's Career— His First 

Great Raid At Bull Run and Chambersburg— The Sweep Round 

jVleade's Army — Death in Battle 3°3 

Chapter XVIII. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

The Confederate Civil Leaders— A Description of Jefferson Davis— His Army 
Career—In Congress— Chosen President of the Confederacy— His Able 
Efforts— His Military Ability— Presidential Strategy— Jackson in The Val- 
leys—Davis Interviewed after the War — ^Was he Right or Wrong? — 
Vice-President Stephen's Described — His Early Career — His Public Ser- 
vice ^The Confederate Cabinet — ^Toombs and Benjamin — ^Work of the 

Naval Department— The Merrimac and Monitor — ^The Fate of the Iron- 
Clads — ^The Work of the Alabama 3^7 

Chapter XIX. 

WAR'S DREAD HERITAGE AND THE POLITICIAN'S FATAL CLUTCH 

Conditions in North after Civil War — In South — Courage and Devotion of the 
Southern Soldier — Causes of Conquest — Desolation of the South — Great 
Decline in Value of Property — Effect of War on Negroes — Steps Toward 
Restoration of Industry — Congressional Interference — The Problem of Re- 
construction — Negro Suffrage and its Results — The Carpet-bag Invasion — 
Legislative Theft and Demoralization — A Black Picture of Negro Legisla- 
tion — The Southern White Rises in Revolt^The Negro in the South Caro- 
lina State House — End of the Reign of Terror and Restoration of Property. . .346 

Chapter XX. 

THE PROBLEM OF THE NEGRO AS A FREEDMAN AND CITIZEN. 

Lincoln's Views on Slavery— Effect of Emancipation—A New Negro Problem — 
The Negro as Voter and Legislator — The Fifteenth Amendment and Its 



Contents 23 

Page 
Effect — The Results of an Evil Measure — Relations of Southern Whites and 
Blacks — Mental Conditions of the Negro Race — Desire for Education after 
the War — Immaturity of the Negro Mind — Life for the Passing Moment — 
The Negro's Instinct of Affection — Deterioration in Manners — Slavery a 
Benefit to the Negro Race — The Negro Vote as an Asset — The System of 
Industrial Education — Progress of the Tuskegee Institute — Booker T. Wash- 
ington's Speech at Atlanta — Views as to the Condition and Prospects of the 
Negro Race 360 

Chapter XXI. 

KING COTTON THE SNOWY MONARCH OF SOUTHERN INDUSTRY 

Cotton Is King — Beginning of Cotton Culture — The Seed and Its Annoyance — 
The Cotton Gin Invented — Its Wonderful Effect — Varieties of Plant Culti- 
vated — Life on the Plantation — The Fascination of the Business — The Negro 
Laborer in Mississippi — A Home-Coming Procession — The Seed an Item of 
Value — Great Yield of Cotton-Seed Oil — Other By-Products — Cotton Culti- 
vation — Ginning and Pressing — Fluctuations in Cotton Growing — Increase 
in Consumption — The Cotton Mill in the South — Rapid Progress in South- 
ern Manufacture 383 

Chapter XXII. 

THE PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE OF THE FARMING INDUSTRY 

IN THE SOUTH. 

The South a Land of many Products — A Glimpse at Its Products — An Economic 
Revolution — The Negro as a Farm Holder — Corn and Tobacco — The Story 
of Rice Culture — Rice in Louisiana and Texas — The Louisiana Sugar — 
The Peanut Crop^ — What the South has done and can do — Phosphates — 
Fruit and Vegetable Raising — The Peach of the South — The Melon and 
Strawberry — The Florida Orange and Pineapple — Cattle Raising in Texas 
—The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky and its Thoroughbred Horses — The 
Blooded Stock of Tennessee- — Secretary Wilson on Southern Agriculture. 4.03 

Chapter XXIII. 
THE VAST MINERAL AND FOREST RESOURCES OF THE SOUTH 

The Coal and Iron Area of the Appalachians — of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas — 
The Petroleum Regions— The Marbles of Tennessee and other States — 



24 Contents 

FkGE 

Noviculate, Salt and Gold — Hot Springs and Caverns of the South — The 
Region of the Cypress and Pine — The Hardwood Forests — 422 



Chapter XXIV. 

THE IRON FORGE AND THE COTTON MILL REGENERATE THE 

SOUTH. 

The South in 1880 — The Outlook before It — The Results of Progress — Early Iron 
Manufacture — Conditions in 1860 — Judge Kelly in the South — The Dawn 
of Regeneration — Great Progress in Cotton Spinning — Its Present Status — 
Iron and Steel in Alabama and Elsewhere^Rivalry with Europe — A Vast 
Spread of Forest — The Yield of Lumber — Other Industries of the South — 
A Land of Great Resources ■ 433 

Chapter XXV. 

FROM COMMON SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY. 

Schools in Early Virginia — School Laws in North Carolina, South Carolina and 
Georgia — The Era of Academies — Peabody and Slater Gifts to Education — ■ 
Progress of Public Schools — William and Mary College — Washington and 
Lee College — University of Virginia — Other Virginian Colleges — Maryland 
Institutions — Universities at Nashville and Knoxville — Colleges in the Caro- 
linas — Education in Kentucky — Missouri and Arkansas — The University of 
Georgia and other Institutions of that State — Florida and Alabama Institu- 
tions — The Tuskegee Institute — Tulane University of Louisiana and other 
Advanced Schools — Texas and Its Colleges — Baylor University — The Prob- 
lem of Negro Education 449 

Chapter XXVI. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE. 

Early American Literature — Political Genius of the South — Page on the lack of 

an Early Southern Literature — The Pioneer Writers— Early Magazine — 

Kennedy and Simms — Cooke and Carruthers — Former Women NoveHsts — 

'^ Edgar A. Poe as a Poet — His Stories and Criticisms — Other Poets of his 

Period— Humorous Writers — Effect of the War on the South— The New 



Contents 25 

Pagh 
Period and its Writers — Page and Harris — Lanier, Hayne and Timrod — 
Novelists of a New Type — Late Writers of Fiction — The Characteristics of 
Southern Literature 473 

Chapter XXVIL 

HISTORIC CITIES OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES. 

Baltimore, its History and Industries — Richmond, and Its Features of Interest — 
Norfolk, Virginia's chief Seaport — Wilmington and the Blockade Runners — 
Raleigh, the City of Oaks — Charlotte and Asheville — Charleston and Its 
History — Its Attractions and Industries — Columbia, a Busy Capital City — 
Savannah, Georgia's Pioneer City — The Port of Brunswick — Atlanta, the 
Young Giant of the South — The Progress of Augusta — Macon and Its Ad- 
vantages — Columbus and What it Stands for — Antique St. Augustine — • 
Jacksonville, Pensacola, Tampa and Key West 491 

Chapter XXVIII. 

GULF STATE SEAPORTS AND CENTERS OF INDUSTRY. 

Progress in Alabama — Mobile and Its Commerce — Mobile's Attractions — Bir- 
m.ingham and the Iron Industry — Other Iron Centers — Montgomery, the 
State Capital — Its History and Progress — Mississippi's Industries — Vicks- 
burg and Natchez — Meridian and Greenville — What Louisiana Stands for — • 
Metropolitan New Orleans — Its Great Commerce — Baton Rouge and 
Shreveport — The Great Seaport of Texas — Commerce of Galveston — A 
Frightful Disaster — The Grit of the People — San Antonio and Its History — ■ 
Houston and Its Trade — Austin, a Beautiful Capital City — Dallas and Fort 
Worth — Denison and Waco 514 

Chapter XXIX. 

FAMOUS CITIES OF THE SOUTH CENTRAL STATES. 

The South Central States — Origin of St. Louis — Its Business Prosperity — The 
Great Exposition — Kansas City and St. Joseph — Little Rock and other 
Cities of Arkansas^The Founding of Louisvdle — The City's Development — - 
Lexington and the Blue Grass Regions — Covington and Newport — The 
Characteristics of Tennessee — The Situation of Memphis — Its History and 
Prosperity — Cotton and Hardwood- -Chattanooga and Its History — Growth 
of Its Iron Works — Its other Industries — Attractions of Chattanooga — 



26 Contents 

Page 
Knoxville and its Situation — Its History and Industries — The Record of 
Nashville — Its Institutions 537 



Chapter XXX. 

THE SOUTH AS A SUMMER AND WINTER RESORT FOR THE TOURIST. 

The South newly Discovered — The Land of the Sky — The American Switzer- 
land — ^The Asheville Region — Virginia's Watering Places — South Carolina's 
Health Resorts — The Attractions of Georgia — Its Favorite Springs — Jekyl 
and Cumberland Islands — Florida and its Resorts — Gulf Coast Watering 
Places — Sports in the South — Deer Shooting and Fishing 557 

Chapter XXXI. 

THE SOUTH IN ITS PERFORMANCE AND ITS PROMISE. 

The Era of Hostile Relations- — The Evils of Reconstruction — President Johnson 
and Congress — The Troops withdrawn — Manufacture and the Tariff — 
Growth of Harmony — The South a rival of New England — Great Railroad 
Progress — Southern Waterways and Gulf Port commerce — The Southern 
City of Coming Time — A Prophetic Outlook 570 

Chapter XXXII. 

GRAND EXPOSITIONS OF INDUSTRY IN THE CITIES OF THE 

SOUTH. 

Origin of World's Fairs — Southern Progress first Shown at the Centennial Exposi- 
tion—The International Cotton Exposition of 1881 — Louisville and the 
Southern Exposition — The Cotton Centenary Exposition at New Orleans — 
Great Size of Main Buildings, and Grandeur of the Display — Atlanta again 
in the Field — Great Beauty of the Cotton States' Exposition — The Tennessee 
Centennial — The Charleston Exposition and its Attractions — President 
Roosevelt's Visit and his Remarks — Louisiana Purchase Exposition — The 
Site at St. Louis — Variety and Extent of Buildings — ^Opening Cere- 
monies — Scope of Exhibits — ^The Pike and its Attractions 582 



Contents 27 



Chapter XXXIII. 

THE JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION, ITS SITE AND HISTORY 

Page 
A great natural event — How Jamestown was settled — The story of the colony 
— A turning point in its history — The Exposition Company chartered — ■ 
A site chosen — Historical interest of the locality — Famous fight of the 
Merrimac and Monitor — Climate of the region — Its points of interest — 
Death of President Lee — The character of the Exposition defined — The 
State buildings — The improvement of the Exposition grounds — A fine 
example of landscape gardening — The Exposition opening day — Roose- 
velt reviews the fleets — The inauguration ceremonies — The President's 
speech — ^The military pageant — A second anniversary ceremony — The 
Auditorium and other buildings — A red and white city — -The War Path 
— Aquatic events — ^What the buildings held — A fine government display 
— Exhibits of the Departments — ^The great pier — Influence of the Exposi- 
tion on the development of the South tog 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Sebastian Cabot 34 

The Use of Water Power in the 

Upland South Twenty Years Ago. 35 
The Use of Water Power in the 

South To-Day 36 

Chart Showing Available Water 

Supply of the South 39 

Sir Walter Raleigh 44 

Indian Village with Palisades 47 

Southern Tobacco Field (full page) . 55 
The Old Williamsburg Court House 56 

The Burning of Jamestown 65 

An Indian Woman 71 

The Oldest House in St. Augustine, 

Fla 74 

An Old Manor Hallway (full page) 81 
A Southern Gentleman's Estate.... 82 

An Old Southern Garden 87 

The Sowell Garden, S. C 91 

Old Spanish House, New Orleans. . 95 
A Chaise of the Eighteenth Century 99 

Patrick Henry 106 

Silk Winding 112 

A Virginia Currency Note of 1777. . 114 

The Capitol at Richmond, Va 116 

A Beautiful House on Bull Street, 

Savannah 122 

The Battery at Charleston 125 

Tarleton's Lieutenant and the 

Farmer (Jack Davis) 131 

An Old Indian Farm House 137 

Indian Agency 141 

Ready for the Trail 145 

Scene on the Plains 149 

Mrs. James Madison 157 

James Madison 160 

Mary Ball, Afterward the Mother of 

George Washington 167 

George Washington 170 

Washington's Mother Receiving La- 
fayette 175 

Washington Monument (full page). 181 



PAGH 

Washington Monument in Rich- 
mond, Va 182 

Fernando de Soto, Discoverer of 

the Mississippi 186 

Robert de La Salle 190 

Thomas Jefferson 193 

Signing the Louisiana Purchase 

Treaty 197 

Andrew Jackson 204 

Osceola's Indignation 209 

Jackson Monument in New Orleans. 214 

James Monroe 219 

William Henry Harrison 223 

James K. Polk 227 

GrOver Cleveland 230 

Henry Clay 235 

Statue to Henry Clay (full page).. 241 

John C. Calhoun 245 

John Tyler 249 

Daniel Webster 251 

Samuel Houston 255 

Zachary Taylor 259 

The Alamo Building 261 

General Winfield Scott 265 

San Antonio, Tex., from Fort Hous- 
ton 267 

A Progressive Negro 270 

Uncle Remus Express 277 

A Happy Old Mammy 283 

The First Capitol of the Confeder- 
acy, Montgomery,. Ala 287 

Abraham Lincoln 293 

General Robert E. Lee 504 

General Albert Sidney Johnston.... 308 
General Lee's Invasion of the North 311 

General "Stonewall" Jackson 314 

The Fatal Wounding of "Stonewall" 

Jackson 319 

General Joseph E. Johnston 323 

President Jefferson Davis 329 

The White House of the Confeder- 
acy, Richmond, Va 333 

29 



30 



List of Illustrations 



PAGE 

Distinguished Men of the Confed- 
eracy (full page) 339 

Libby Prison 34i 

Monument to Confederate Soldiers. 347 

Andrew Johnson 352 

Monument to Confederate Dead in 

Hollywood Cemetery 355 

Negro Farmer's Cabin of a Few 

Years Ago 362 

Negro Farmer's Cottage of the 

Present Day 366 

Teaching the Negro Useful Trades. 370 
Agricultural Education for the 

Negro 375 

The Cotton Gin 385 

A Cotton Levee 390 

Cotton Picking in Alabama 392 

Spinning Room of a Cotton Mill. .. 395 

Warp Room in a Cotton Mill 400 

An Old-time Tobacco Factory 408 

A Modern Tobacco Factory 410 

Pineapple Plantation in Florida.... 415 

Orange Grove, Florida 417 

Coal Fields of the South 423 

Chipping Bark for Turpentine 425 

A Country Saw-Mill 430 

Cotton Areas and Production, 1905. 434 
Map Showing Cotton Districts of 

the South 438 

Mill Worker's Cottage 441 

A Large Cotton Field (full page).. 445 

William and Mary College 450 

The School house of the Past 452 

The Schoolhouse of the Present... 452 

Two Schoolhouses Contrasted 454 

The Decreasing Illiteracy of the 

South 462 

The First Building of the Tuskegee 

Institute 465 

Carnegie Library at Tuskegee 470 

James Lane Allen 474 

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, "Mark 

Twain" 477 

Edgar Allan Poe 48^ 

Joel Chandler Harris 485 



John Trotwood Moore 488 

The Park, Charleston, S. C 499 

Business Section, Atlanta, Ga 506 

New Orleans, Showing the Crescent 

in the Mississippi River 516 

Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Ala. . 521 
Residence of Jefferson Davis, Beau- 

voir, La 524 

Old City Hall, New Orleans 528 

State House, Baton Rouge, La 531 

Bridge Over the Arkansas River. . 539 
Jefferson Street and Public Bm'ld- 

ings, Louisville, Ky 543 

Freight Yards at Nashville, Tenn.. 548 
Knoxville, Mountain City of Tenn. 554 

Hunting Lodge, Aiken, S. C 558 

The Health of the Lower South... 561 
Whitney Hunting Garden Lodge... 566 
Diagram Showing Increase in Value 
of Southern Manufactured Prod- 
ucts, 1890-1900-1905 573 

Planing Mill in Georgia 584 

Three Southern Forest Sections... 588 

Theodore Roosevelt 593 

Palace of Varied Industries 597 

Cypress Trees on Pearl River, Miss. 602 
Rock Marking the Spot Where 

"Stonewall" Jackson Fell 606 

Fortress Monroe, Va 610 

Historical Neighborhood of James- 
town 613 

Across Canoe Trail 615 

Diagram Showing the Convenient 

Location of the Grounds 616 

The Mississippi Building 621 

Diagram Showing Increase of Capi- 
tal Invested in Southern Manufac- 
tures 1890- 1900- 1905 622 

The Palace of Commerce 626 

The Georgia Building 628 

Part of a $6,000 Apple Crop (full 

page) 631 

The North Carolina Building 634 

Mileage of the Southern Railroads 
in 1890-190S 635 



List of Full Page Illustrations. 



Paoe 

Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet - - Frontispiece. 

Pocahontas Saving the Life of John Smith - - - - 66 

An Old Manor House - -- —--_____ jo8 

Battle of Resaca De La Palma --__-___ J42 

An Old Creole Cottage - - -- -__- __ jgg 

Incline Railway at Chattanooga - --_-__ 228 

Our Forest Wealth -------_-___ 262 

Negro Ox Teams ------ ______ 288 

The Constitution of the Confederacy _ - _ - _ ^^q 

A Business Street in Birmingham To-Day - _ - _ ^5^ 

A Profit of 1^2,723.6 1 on Fifteen Acres of Strawberries 406 

A Southern City Park - --_-----__ 4^5 

Campus of the University of Virginia ----- 478 

Richmond Residence of Jefferson Davis _ - _ _ ^22 

A Private Palace of the South - - - _ - - - ^5^ 

The Jamestown Exposition --______ _ ^86 

31 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SOUTH, A NOBLE REALM OF 
BEAUTY, WEALTH AND PROMISE 

The growth of the Great Repubhc — The summerland of the continent — The bound- 
aries of the South — The Mason and Dixon Une — The extension of the slave 
system — The grand proportions of the South — Its geographical character — Its 
mountain system — Its rainfall and watercourses — States west of the Missis- 
sippi — A noble river — The industrial sections — Negro labor — A self-supporting 
land — Its varied wealth and beauty. 

UPON the Great Republic of the West, rich, broad, prosperous, 
promising, "The Land of the Free, and the Home of the 
Brave," Nature has showered her gifts with a lavish hand. 
For long ages, during which only the savage red man trod its lofty 
mountains and ample plains, this great domain was being prepared 
for the nursery of a mighty nation. In the latter days this nation 
arose, a weak infant at first, yet fast growing sturdy and powerful, 
until it became of giant girth and strength, a young and lusty 
Goliath of the West, fitted to cope with the greatest powers of the 
ancient East, and perhaps in time to triumph over them all. Such 
is the great Union of States which has made America the modern 
wonder of the world, the paragon of nations. 

But the gifts of Nature were not equally distributed over this 
outstretching realm. In the west she withheld her largess, and a 
vast area of land was left in an arid and desert condition. In the 
north she gave fertility, but overspread it for half the year with 
wintry bleakness and freezing chill. Only in the south, the broad 
and smiling summerland of the continent, were her gifts laid with 
no niggardly hand, the soil, the sun, the rains, the streams all 
vieing to produce here one of the richest and most beautiful lands 
upon the face of the globe; a region of perennial charm, of rare 
fertility, of delightful climate, lying midway between the realms 

3 23 



34 



The South, A Realm of Beauty 



of wintry frost and tropic heat, sharing the advantages and escap- 
ing the defects of both. Such is the Southland, the realm of beauty, 
fertility and abundance, with which we propose to deal. 

An ample area it has, this smiling land of the South; with 
abundant room for great varieties of climate, soil and surface within 
its spacious boundaries. On its northern border it touches the 
kingdom of frost, whose unseen couriers at intervals course far and 
fast over its soil. On its southern border it is bathed by the warm 
waters of the Gulf, full of the tropic fervor of the sun. Between 
these widely separated boundaries lies the southern section of the 
North Temperate Zone; in many respects the region most favored 
by nature of aU the wide surface of the earth. Within its confines 
in the eastern world He Southern Italy and Greece, with other 
sun-kissed and delightful lands. But it 
would be difficult to find in all the eastern 
realms a land so favored by nature, so pro- 
lific in* promise and rich in performance, as 
the rare American Southland, the home of 
the orange and the rose, the live-oak and the 
palm, of sunny vales and salubrious hills, 
verdant groves and charming homes. 

The South is our theme, and it is our pur- 
pose in this chapter to present it in its general 
outhnes to the eye of the reader. With the At- 
lantic Ocean on its east, and the Gulf of 
Mexico on its south, it is bordered on the west by the mountains 
and arid lands of Old and New Mexico, and the more fertile re- 
gion of Kansas and Oklahoma. On the north we are accus- 
tomed to speak of the Mason and Dixon line as its boundary. 
This was truly the case when the American Union was confined 
to the thirteen original States, but it is only partly the case in these 
more recent times. As this Mason and Dixon line has become a 
largely traditional term to many readers, conveying no definite 
meaning to their minds, it behooves us here to state just what is 
meant by it. It is, in fact, a result of the dispute be- 
tween the proprietors of Pennsylvania and Maryland, re- 
garding the boundaries of their respective provinces. This 
dispute, beginning between William Penn and Lord Baltimore, was 
continued by their descendants for a considerable part of a cen- 




SEBASTIAN CABOT 

who cruised far southward in his 
voyage of discovery. 



The South, A Realm of Beauty 



35 



tuiy, until in the end two able English surveyors, Charles Mason 
and Jeremiah Dixon, were sent out to make a careful survey and 
establish the true boundary. This task kept them busy from 1763 
to 1767, during which years, starting from the northwest corner of 
Maryland, they ran a line due west through the wilderness for 
nearly three hundred miles. At every fifth mile a stone was set up 
with the coat-of-arms of WiUiam Penn cut on its north side and 
that of Lord Baltimore on its south side. This line divided the 
northern and southern colonies as they existed at that time, and 
the Northern and Southern States until after the settlement of the 
west. The boundary between the Northern and Southern States, 
however, has long been much more extended and diversified than 




THE 



USE OF WATER POWER IN THE UPLAND SOUTH TWENTY 
YEARS AGO 



this. In addition to the Mason and Dixon line, it now comprises 
the Ohio River through nearly all its length, the Mississippi along 
eastern Missouri, and the northern boundary of Missouri, which 
follows a parallel of latitude a few degrees north of that of the 
Mason and Dixon line. 

Within the boundaries here defined lie fifteen of our forty-five 
States, including along the Atlantic slope Maryland, Virginia (with 
West Virginia as its foster son). North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Georgia and Florida, and along the Gulf coast, Alabama, Mis- 
sissippi, Louisiana and Texas, while those of interior location com- 



36 



The South, A Realm of Beauty 




^" 



?*-! 



J 



THE USE OP^ WAIER POWER IN IHE SOU 1"H TO-DAY 

A dam on the Yadkin River which will furnish 54,000 horse-power and run cotton mills 

in a large area by long distance transmission. 

prise Tennessee and Kentucky on the east, and Arkansas and 
Missouri on the west of the Mississippi River. This extended 
series of States is greatly diversified in location, climate, productions 
and natural characteristics. One at least among them, Missouri, 
is closely associated with the Northern States in climatic conditions, 
and the same may be said of Maryland. What, then, is their bond 
of union, since it does not seem to be that of climate and only in 
part that of geographical position. 

This may be said in a phrase. The South includes those 
States in which the institution of slavery continued to the Civil War. 
We omit Delaware, in which slavery had reached its vanishing 
point by i860. This distinction it is necessary to make for various 
reasons, and especially from the fact that it was this that gave the 
South a destiny distinct from that of the North, and led inevitably 



The South, A Realm of Beauty 37 

to the greatest and most disastrous event in the history of our coun- 
try. It needs to be said here, however, that the institution of slavery 
was by no means exclusively Southern, but was at one time common 
to every section of our land; and that the people of the Northern 
States, only when they found that no benefit was to be gained from 
the labor and no money made through the ownership of negro 
slaves, became conscientious against the institution itself, some of 
them cannily salving their consciences and fiUing their pockets by 
selling their black chattels to the South. 

1 hese are noble domains, these States of the South — noble 
in dimensions, in population, in mineral wealth and vegetable pro- 
ductions, in promise and performance. In area they spread over 
875,000 square miles, being much larger in extent than the Euro- 
pean nations of France, Spain, Germany and Great Britain com- 
bined, and occupying a full third of the soil of the United States, 
if we omit its outlying accessions of territory. Within this broad 
domain there dwelt in 1900 a population of over 26,000,000 souls, 
more than a third of the total population of the United States. Thus 
in the South we have an area fitting for a nation, royal in extent, 
and great in power, it being amply capable of supporting a popu- 
lation much greater than that of our whole country as it now exists. 

Such is the Sopth viewed in its general relations. It is now 
incumbent upon us to consider it somewhat more intimately, tak- 
ing account of its geographical characteristics, its productions, its 
industries, its chmatic conditions, its population, and the distri- 
bution of its people. Geographically the South divides into two 
great sections; that lying between the Mississippi and the Atlantic, 
and that lying west of the Mississippi. The former section, that 
which embraces the original States of the South, and those most 
immediately affiliated wath them, is well defined in its geographic 
status. Traversing its central region is a great back-bone of moun- 
tains, the extended Appalachian System, or, as popularly known, 
the Alleghanies, coming downward from the north, and gradually 
sinking away into the plains of Georgia and Southern Alabama. 
From its two flanks the bordering States roll away, on the one side 
to the Atlantic, on the other to the Mississippi, sinking into well- 
watered plains of unsurpassed fertility. 

This great mountain system is far the oldest of the North 
American highlands, the Rocky Mountains of the west being in- 



38 The South, A Realm of Beauty 

fantile in age as compared with it. Part of it probably rose above 
the seas when there was no other land to be seen in this western 
world. To the South belongs the honor of possessing its loftiest 
eminences^ Black Dome, in North Carolina, being over 6,700 feet 
high, while in the same region there are many peaks over 6,000 feet. 
The Appalachian System is a great formation of mountain ranges, 
valleys and tabie-lands, many miles in width, the home of extensive 
forests and the source of numerous rivers, which on the east flow to 
the Atlantic, and on the west make their way, directly or indirectly, 
to the Gulf of Mexico. 

It was across this broad tumble of rocks, valleys, forests, and 
mountain streams that Daniel Boone and the other bold pioneers of 
the Carohnas made their way in past times to discover and settle 
the fertile soil of Kentucky and Tennessee. It is here that the 
South in modern times has discovered a source ot wealth of unsur- 
passed value and utility, in the vast deposits of coal and iron which 
have slept for ages in the depths of its everlasting hills, and which are 
now being used in the development of a great industry, which 
promises in the near future to lift the South to a level with the 
greatest manufacturing regions of the earth. Little less valuable in 
their way are the vast forests of magnificent hardwood timber 
which clothe the flanks of the hills and fill their intervening valleys, 
conserving the innumerable springs in which so many rivers have 
their source. Here are broad growths of maple, oak, ash, chest- 
nut, hickory, walnut, beech, poplar, locust, and various other 
species of valuable timber trees, forming in all the greatest treasury 
of hardwood timber now existing in the United States. So highly 
is it estimated, alike for its present and prospective value, that the 
general government is now seriously considering the conversion 
of this vast tract of woodland into a grand mountain park, for 
the preservation of the streams which it nurses in its umbrageous 
depths. 

The South owes more than we have stated to its vast mountain 
system. It owes to it the innumerable creeks and rivers which 
course its plains in every direction, making it one of the best watered 
regions of the earth. In addition to its streams, the South enjoys 
the advantage of possessing the greatest rainfall of the United 
States — one nowhere in excess, but everywhere in abundance 
In the Gulf States there is an annual rainfall of over fifty-six. 



The South, A Realm of Beauty 



39 



inches, this extending upward as far as Arkansas and Tennessee. 
On the Atlantic coast, the rains, though less in amount, reach 
fifty inches annually in certain localities. Those rains, fairly well 
distributed throughout the year, are the source of a wonderful 
productiveness of the soil, making it the best adapted of any land 




The Available Water Supply of the South. The principal streams that rise in the 
Appalachian Region. 

in the world for the cultivation of cotton, and enabling it to yield 
food-stuffs in abundance to feed all its inhabitants, and furnish 
a generous excess to supply the demands of the North. It is a 
natural granary of plenty, this fertile Southland, the full powers of 
which are as yet very imperfectly developed. 



40 The South, A Realm of Beauty 

West of the Mississippi, in a line from north to south, He three 
of the States named, ranging from Missouri, with its northern 
cHmate and productions, southward through Arkansas to Louis- 
iana, with its semi-tropical situation, the only portion of the United 
States largely devoted to the growth of the sugar-cane, that plant of 
tropic soils. Westward from this State, with the soft lisp in its 
name, lies the vast area of Texas, the most recent addition to the 
Southern sisterhood of States, and nearly half as large as all the 
others combined, while possessing diversities of cHmate, surface 
and soil that reproduce the conditions of most of the territory of the 
United States. 

This western section of the South is as rich in mineral wealth 
as the eastern. In Missouri the iron ore does not need to be 
torn from the heart of the mountains, since it composes mountains 
in itself, and in Texas the yield of petroleum rivals in quantity the 
far-famed fields of Pennsylvania. As for forests, they are a rich 
source of vegetable wealth, especially those of pine, which cover 
very broad areas, not alone in Louisiana and Texas, but in the 
Eastern Gulf and South Atlantic States as well. In all respects, as 
we have said, nature has worked nobly and well for the good of the 
South, supplying it amply with mineral and forest wealth, and 
adapting its soil to a wonderfully rich and abundant production of 
the valued treasures of the vegetable world. 

Through the heart of this great country runs the noblest 
river of our land, and one of the greatest of the earth, the lordly 
Mississippi, whose waters are capable of bearing on their breast 
the argosies of a continent, and whose affluents traverse widely the 
vast plain which lies between the two great mountain systems of the 
United States. This mighty river gathers its liquid wealth from a 
thousand sources, and forms an avenue of commerce whose future 
promise is supremely great. Yet, while the Father of Waters 
dwarfs all the other streams of the continent, there are other rivers 
of noble dimensions in the South, some of which, if transferred to 
Europe, would be classed with the famous streams of that storied 
land. 

The geographical division of the South which we have made is 
not the only one which presents itself. There is a second, partly 
geographical and partly climatic in character, but industrial in 
significance. This division embraces three sections, the northern. 



The South, A Realm of Beauty 41 

the southern, and the mountain, not definitely separated by 
distinct boundaries, yet clearly marked in their industrial conditions. 
We may designate them as the farming South, the planting South, 
and the mountainous South, each of which has its industrial 
specialty. In the northern or farming section the plantations 
have long been comparatively small, the agricultural interests 
diversified, and there has been a personal and kindly relation be- 
tween the land-owner and his dusky laborer. In the planting 
section, that of the broad cotton fields of the Gulf States, where the 
farm, properly so called, could scarcely be said to exist, the 
number of laborers upon any plantation was necessarily much 
larger, and no marked intimacy of relation between them and their 
employer, as a rule, could exist. This, at least, was the case in the 
days of slavery, when the large gangs of field hands were left under 
the supervision of an overseer, only the slaves in domestic ser- 
vice coming into close association with the family of the master. 
In the mountain region again special conditions have prevailed. 
Here are broad forests and rich mines, making forestry and 
mining leading industries of the section. The climate is equable 
and pleasant, the soil in the valley regions well watered and fertile, 
and the farms small, often calhng for no other labor than that of 
the family of the owner. 

These differences in location and character have made great 
differences in condition between the three sections, and have had 
important effects upon the distribution of population and the respec- 
tive numbers of whites and blacks. Negro labor has been far less 
needed in the mountains than in the lowlands, and less in the farming 
than in the planting section. It is in the latter, the broad and 
warm cotton-belt of the Gulf and the neighboring States, that the 
dusky laborers of the South most do congregate, they being largely 
in excess of the whites in two States, South CaroHna and Mississippi, 
and closely approaching them in number in several other States. 
With their native adaptation to a tropical climate, it is but natural 
that the negroes should cling in preference to the warmest section of 
our broad domain. 

Such is the South considered in its aspects of soil, climate, 
geographical character, productions and population. Its develop- 
ment in all avenues of business activity has kept pace with that of 
the country at large, and takes rank with the greatest and most 



42 The South, A Realm of Beauty 

noteworthy national movements in the industrial and commercial 
history of the world. It is so richly endowed by nature, and 
possesses so vast a supply of material wealth, that if the balance of 
the world were swept out of existence, it could support itself and 
prosper abundantly for ages to come. It is a land sufficient unto 
itself. Raw materials exist, or are successfully grown, in its 
every section in such prodigal profusion that no one need want. 
It has a system of intercommunication and connection with the 
outer world by river and rail sufficient to give it commercial relations 
with the utmost borders of civilization. With its genial chmate and 
prolific soil, and its growing manufacturing and mining industries, 
it offers to its citizens, and to those who may hereafter become such, 
in all avenues, — industrial, commercial, agricultural and intellec- 
tual, — every advantage and inducement to be found in any portion 
of the United States. 

We have given here but a bird's-eye view of the great domain 
of the South, passing glimpses caught in a rapid flight over its broad 
and smiling surface. Nothing has been said of the /vast areas of 
fleecy cotton which spread in great expanses of vegetable snow over 
State after State; nothing of the wealth of food-stuffs yearly pro- 
duced; nothing of the profusion of floral bloom, which makes so 
many of its happy homes bowers of beauty and perfume; nothing ot 
the genial charm of its cities, with their broad streets lined with verdant 
trees, and bordered with gardens in which Flora smiles the whole 
year through; nothing of its busy centers of manufacturing 
industry, recent in development, but rich in promise. Such is the 
South, of whose history and heroes we propose in future chapters 
to speak; a land to be proud of, and to admire; a realm of nature's 
choicest beauty and charm; a clime which to live in is to love. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE OLD DOMINION AND THE CAVA- 
LIERS OF THE COLONIES 

The Spanish and French — Sir Walter Raleigh and his Colonists — ^The cavalier settlers 
— The spirit of liberty — ^The Scotch-Irish of the valleys — How Jamestown was 
settled — -Early days in Virginia — Negro slaves — The first Legislature — Self- 
government — The cavaliers in South Carolina — -The Old Dominion — Berke- 
ley's defiance of Cromwell — Charles II and Virginia. 

ONE honor the South may justly claim, that of standing first 
in the record of discovery and settlement upon the fair soil 
of the United States. Here came the Spaniards; here the 
French; here the English, far in advance of any settlement upon the 
northern coast. Not long after Columbus made his glorious discov- 
ery. Ponce de Leon sailed to Florida in quest of the fabled Fountain 
of Youth and found death instead. Here came De Ayllon; then De 
Narvaez; then De Soto: the last the more enterprising and the 
more famous, though in place of the gold-yielding Indian empire 
he sought, he found only a watery tomb beneath the Mississippi's 
rapid flood. 

In 1562 the French followed, a colony of Huguenots sent out 
by the famous Admiral Coligny landing in the north of Florida. 
Others sought the same locality, but in 1565 they were all swept 
from the face of the earth by the bloody-minded Spaniard Pedro 
Menendez.- We might well wish to forget this demon of massacre, 
but we must record his name here as the founder of St. Augustine, 
the first permanent settlement on our country's soil. 

Coming to the story of the English settlers, it is to find the 
pioneer movement still in the South, in the work of Sir Walter 
Raleigh, who devoted years of his life and much of his wealth to the 
futile effort to plant a colony on Roanoke Island, off" the North 
Carolina coast. His story is thus tellingly outlined for us by a 
Southern author of distinction: 

43 



44 The Old Dominion 

" Elizabeth had taken into her favor a young man who, even in 
that adventurous age, had displayed extraordinary qualities, a young 
Devonshire gentleman, described by an old chronicler as 'of a good 
presence in a well-compared body, strong, natural wit, and better 
judgment, a bold and plausible tongue, the fancy of a poet, and the 
chivalry of a soldier.' He was cousin to Sir Richard Grenville, who 
brought undying fame to our race, when, with the little 'Revenge,' he 
fought the Spaniard at Flores, and he was half-brother to those bold 
adventurous navigators. Sir Humphrey, Sir John, and Sir Adrian 
Gilbert, who, with him, did more than any other family to wrest this 
continent from Spain and make it an 'English nation.' Dashing 
soldier as he was, queller of rebellions, patron of poets, stout hater 
and fighter of Spain, 'admiral and shepherd of the ocean,' it was his 
highest title that he was 'Lord and Chief Governor of Virginia.' It 
is likewise one of Virginia's chief glories that she owes her name and 
her being, at least in its peculiar form, to the stout, 
high-minded, and chivalric soldier, the most pic- 
turesque character in modern history^second in 
his work only to Christopher Columbus — 
Sir Walter Raleigh. 

"Although the colonies which Raleigh 

planted perished, his mighty enterprise laid 

the foundation for the final establishment of 

Virginia, and his spirit fixed its imperishable 

L^ ^ _ .X ^L impress upon the work and gave it its dis- 

"'^ l^'X-X^. ~^fi^' tinctive character. He was at Oxford when 

' ^ England thrilled with the news of Haw- 

SIR WALTER RALEIGH j^j^^.^ ^j^^j.^ voyage. He left the University 

to fight the Spaniard in the Low Country. From that time 
Spain was his quarry. He spent his great life in wresting 
America from her hands. He awakened in England an interest in 
the new land which never died out; made its holding a matter of 
national pride and national principle; excited British pride and 
religious fervor; stimulated the flagging, awakened public enthu- 
siasm, aroused the Church, and created the spirit, which, in spite 
of numberless disasters and repeated failures, finally verified his 
high prophecy to Sir Robert Cecil, that he would 'live to see Virginia 
an English nation.' 

"The names of the men who engaged in these enterprises are 




The Old Dominion 45 

enough to show how the aristocratic character became fixed on the 
Southern settlement. The South was settled not merely under the 
patronage of, but largely by, the better class in England. The 
queen sent Sir Humphrey Gilbert an anchor set with jewels, and a 
message that she 'wished him as great happiness and safety to his 
ship as if she herself were there in person. ' 

"Raleigh's high spirit gave the colony a priceless benefaction. 
He obtained in his charter (of 1584) a provision that his colonists 
should 'have all the privileges of free denizens and natives of Eng- 
land, and were to be governed according to such statutes as should 
by them be established, so that the said statutes or laws conform as 
conveniently as may be to those of England,' etc. 

"These guaranties were the rock on which the American people 
founded their impregnable claim to those rights which are now 
deemed inherent and inalienable. They bore an important part in 
the social as well as the political life of the people. They were 
renewed in the charter of 1606 under which the colony came, which 
finally secured in Virginia a lasting foothold, and established here 
the rule of the Anglo-Saxon race. They were never forgot by 
the stout adventurers who came to endure the hardships of the 
New World, 'leaving their bodies in testimonie of their minds.' 
They formed the foundation of that pride and independence which 
became so notable a characteristic of the social life, and gave it its 
individuality. 

"For many years daring young members of the great families 
with their retainers had been going abroad, taking service in the 
Low Countries, and feeding their instinct for adventure. The wars 
were now over; London was filled with these soldiers, without 
means, and with the wandering habit strong on them, brave to reck- 
lessness, without steady habits of industry, ready for any adventure. 
Filled with the enthusiasm of exploration and colonization, fired by 
the tales of the Gilberts, of Grenville, Hawkins, Gosnold, Stukeley 
and others, the colonizing spirit of the English race found here a 
field; and Virginia became the El Dorado of the English nation. 

"Thus Virginia was settled with a strong English feeling in- 
grained in her, with EngHsh customs and habits of life, with EngHsh 
ideas modified only to suit the conditions of existence here. Among 
the chief factors which influenced the Virginia fife and molded it 
in its peculiar form were this EngHsh feehng (which was almost 



46 The Old Dominion 

strong enough to be termed a race feeling); the aristocratic tendency; 
the happy combination of soil, climate and agricultural product 
(tobacco), which made them an agricultural people, and enabled 
them to support a generous style oi living as landed gentry; the 
Church with its strong organization; and the institution of slavery. "* 

Referring later to the subject of the class of people from which 
the settlers of Virginia were drawn, and the spirit of liberty which they 
early displayed, Page says: 

"Undoubtedly many, both at first and later on, came to Vir- 
ginia who were not of gentle birth; but the lines were too clearly 
drawn to admit of confusion; those who possessed the personal force 
requisite, rose, and were absorbed into the upper class; but the great 
body of them remained a class distinct from this. In the contest 
between Charles I and his ParHament, the people of Virginia, 
following their instincts, at the final rupture sided overwhelmingly 
with* the king, and Virginia had become so well recognized as an 
aristocratic country that after the failure of the Royalist arms there 
was a notable emigration of followers of the king to the colony, which, 
under the stout old cavalier governor. Sir William Berkeley, had 
been unswerving in its loyalty 

"Yet there was that in the Virginians which distinguished them, 
for all their aristocratic pretensions, from their British cousins. 
Grafted on the aristocratic instinct was a jealous watchfulness of 
their liberties, a guardfulness of their rights, which developed into 
a sterling republicanism, notwithstanding the aristocratic instinct. 
The standard was not' birth or family connection; it was one based 
on individual attainment. 

"Sir Walter Raleigh had obtained a guarantee of British rights 
in his charter. Sir Francis Wyatt had brought over in 1622 a charter 
with an extension of these rights. The General Assembly, convened 
in 1 61 9 when there were only eleven boroughs, jealously guarded 
their liberties. They refused to give their records for inspection 
to the royal commissioners, and when their clerk disobeyed them 
and gave them up, they cut off one of his ears and put him in the 
pillory. They passed statutes limiting the power of the governor 
to lay taxes only through the General Assembly. 

"When Charles I, for whom they were ready to vote or fight, 
claimed a monopoly of the tobacco trade, the loyal people of Virginia 

* Thomas Nelson Page : "The Old South," pp. 99-102. 



The Old Dominion 



47 



protested with a vigor which brought him to a stand; when Cromwell 
sent his governor, they deposed him and immediately reelected him 
that he might act only by their authority. They offered Charles II 
a kingdom; but when he granted the Northern Neck to Culpeper 
and Arlington they grew ready for revolution. 

"Many of the best known of the older families of Virginia are 
descended from royalist refugees. On the Restoration some of the 
adherents of the Commonwealth, finding England too hot for them, 
came over; but they 
were held in no very 

high general esteem, i ,i!Ulillliil!l,ll(tll'i^l'!'l 

and the old order 
continued to prevail. 



"As the eigh- 
teenth century 
passed, the settle- 
ment pushed farther 
and fa r ther west- 
ward. A new^ ele- 
ment came in by way 
of the upper valley 
of Virginia, stout 
Scotch-Irish Presby- 
terian settlers, from 
Scotland first, and 
then from Ireland, 
with the colonizing 
spirit strong in them ; 
simple in their life, 
stern in their faith, 




-Jt^.,.. 






/J. 



It •" 



INDIAN VILLAGE ENCLOSED WITH PALISADES 

(From the original drawing in the British Museum, made by John 
White in 1585.) 



dauntless in their courage, a race to found and to hold new lands 
against all comers or claimants; a race whose spirit was more potent 
than the line of forts with which the French attempted to hem them in 
along the Belle Riviere. They founded a new colony looking to the 
West and the new land, as the old planter settlers towards the sea 
looked to the East and the old. 

" Burnaby, the traveler, paid a visit to the valley in which they 
had first made their home. T could not but reflect with pleasure on 



48 The Old Dominion 

the situation of these people' says he, 'and think if there is such a 
thing as happiness in this hfe that they enjoy it. Far from the 
bustle of the world, they live in the most delightful climate and rich- 
est soil imaginable; they are everywhere surrounded with beautiful 
prospects, and sylvan scenes; lofty mountains, transparent streams, 
tails of water, rich valleys, and majestic woods; the whole inter- 
spersed with aninfinitevariety of flowering shrubs, constitute the land- 
scape surrounding them They live in perfect hberty, 

are ignorant of want and acquainted with butfew vices They 

possess what many princes would give half their dominions for, 
health, content, and tranquillity of mind.' 

"Now and then the lines crossed, and, with intercourse, gradu- 
ally the aristocratic tendency of the seaboard and Piedmont became 
grafted into the patriarchal system of the valley, distinctly coloring 
it, though the absence of slaves in numbers softened the lines mark- 
ing the class-distinction. "* 

Whence came the people whom Page thus eloquently describes 
and what were the events attending their settlement on American 
soil ? For a proper comprehension of this, especially in view of the 
1907 anniversary celebration of the Jamestown settlement, an account 
of the incidents of this settlement comes here in place. Raleigh's 
ineffective efforts to found a colony on Roanoke Island, oflF the coast 
of North Carolina, took place in 1585 and the few following years. 
Then there came a rest for a few years and at the opening of the 
seventeenth century the only white men within the limits of the 
coming United States were the few Spaniards in the small towns of 
St. Augustine, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was a 
virgin land still, waiting for the coming of its destined possessors. 

In 1607 this possession began on Virginia soil, two years before 
the Dutch set foot on Manhattan Island and thirteen years before 
the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Two colonizing companies 
had been formed, the London and the Plymouth, the former having 
control over the southern, the latter over the northern coast. The 
London Company, receiving its charter from the king in 1606, lost 
no time in sending out an expedition, which sailed in December, 
1606. This consisted of one hundred and five men, fifty-two 
of them "gentlemen," the others laborers, mechanics and soldiers. 
There were no women in the party, which occupied three vessels 

*"The Old South," p. 107. 



The Old Dominion 49 

and set sail under Captain Christopher Newport, as some say with 
instructions to land on Roanoke Island, the seat of Raleigh's unlucky 
enterprises, though this lacks evidence. As fortune willed, a storm 
drove them farther north and into the broad shelter of Chesapeake 
Bay. It was a beautiful situation, its shores verdant and inviting. 
Sailing on, they emerged into the noble expanse of Hampton Roads, 
passing the future sites of Norfolk and Old Point Comfort, and 
found themselves in the waters of a splendid river, which poured 
downward from the far interior. Up this they sailed for about 
thirty miles, and on the 13th of May, 1607, set foot on its northern 
shore at a spot which seemed to them well suited for a settle- 
ment. The river they named the James, after King James I, and 
the chosen place for their settlement was called Jamestown. 

The site of the new settlement was a peninsula, jutting out into 
the river. It is now an island. The king had given them instruc- 
tions in a sealed box, not to be opened until they landed. On open- 
ing it they found that a governing council of seven was appointed, 
among whom were Captain Newport, Bartholomew Gosnold, who 
had led a former expedition to America, and Captain John Smith, 
the ablest man who had to do with the settlement of America and the 
man to whose energy and ability the success of this pioneer colony 
was due. 

It needed such a man, for misfortune pursued the colony, largely 
its own fault. The gentlemen had come to seek for gold, not to 
make a home, and neglected to plant seed. The result was that 
only the friendly aid of the Indians saved the settlers from starva- 
tion. They had chosen the peninsula of Jamestown as a place that 
could easily be defended against hostile red men, but it proved 
unhealthful and a pestilence broke out that swept away more than 
half their number. 

Thus passed their first terrible summer. By September only 
about fifty of the settlers were left, but Captain Smith had now 
made himself the chief man in the council and under his skilful 
direction matters improved. Log huts were built, food was ob- 
tained, the lazy were made to work, James River and Chesapeake 
Bay were explored, and Smith had a remarkable series of adventures 
which has made his story one of the most romantic in American 
history. For two years he kept the colony alive, then an accident 
from an explosion of gunpowder injured him so seriously that he 



5o The Old Dominion 

was obliged to return to England and leave the colonists to 
their fate. 

He had no sooner gone than all order and subordination ceased. 
The reckless settlers quickly consumed all their provisions and 
provoked the hostility of the Indians, who refused them food, and 
took opportunities to rob and murder them. Both the whites and 
the red men feared and respected Smith. He gone, all went wrong, 
sickness and famine assailed them, and in six months the colony was 
reduced from nearly five hundred to sixty persons and these so feeble 
and miserable that they must soon have perished if relief had not 
come. This period was long remembered as the "starving time." 

At this perilous interval Sir Thomas Gates arrived with more 
colonists and some supplies, but he found affairs in so hopeless a 
state that he resolved to abandon the enterprise and took the half- 
starved men on board his ship, intending to take them back to 
England. Some of the settlers were so out of heart with Jamestown, 
where, they said, "no one had seen a happy day," that they pro- 
posed to set it on fire and burn it to the ground. Happily, wiser 
councils prevailed, for on reaching the mouth of the river they met 
a new and well equipped expedition coming up, under Lord Del- 
aware, who had been sent out to replace Captain Smith as governor. 
He induced the colonists to return, brought them back to order and 
contentment by his wise rule, and shortly afterward, when seven 
hundred more men arrived, under Governor Dale, who succeeded 
Lord Delaware, the land, which had been held in common, was 
divided among the colonists, each being given a small farm of his 
own. 

This gave a new spirit to the community. Governor Dale was 
a stern old soldier, who ruled with rod of iron, but he showed 
wisdom in this particular, and the old lack of industry disappeared 
when the people were given an opportunity to work for themselves 
instead of for the common storehouse of the community. It was 
now 171 1. In the following year, five years after the colony was 
first formed, John Rolfe — a prominent settler who, in 1713, married 
the Indian princess Pocahontas — began to plaijt and cultivate 
tobacco and Jamestown was saved. Gold had not been found, but 
this new-found plant took its place. It quickly found a market; in 
England almost everybody began to smoke the weed which Raleigh 
had first made known not many years before, and in a few years the 



The Old Dominion Si 

raising of tobacco became the great Virginia industry. New soil 
was sought for its culture. At one time it was planted in the yards, 
the market square, and even the streets, of Jamestown; plantations 
spread up the streams and along the shores of the bays; tobacco took 
the place of money, clergymen and public officials receiving their 
salaries in it; Virginia became a colony of farmers, few towns being 
built and the population remaining almost wholly rural, with 
tobacco for its hope and salvation. Thus, long before any other 
settlement had been made in English America, Jamestown had 
become prosperous and flourishing and the foundations of the famous 
Virginian commonwealth had been amply laid. 

In 1619 two events of leading importance happened to the 
young colony. In August of that year a Dutch vessel sailed up the 
James River and sold to the settlers, to quote the spelling of that day, 
"twenty Negars," to be used as slaves on the plantations; such was 
the beginning of the system of African slavery in America, which in 
time spread from Massachusetts to Georgia and was destined to 
prove the most disastrous element in American history. These 
were not the only plantation laborers, shiploads of whites — political 
prisoners, vagabonds, orphan children, and even reputable persons 
kidnapped in the English seaport towns — were sent across the sea 
and bound out to labor for a term of years. These were known as 
"apprentices," but were virtually slaves while their term of service 
lasted. When set free, some of them became planters, some fell 
back into idle vagabondage, and some made their way to the frontier 
and graduated into hunters and trappers. After 1700 this system 
of white apprenticeship ceased, there being enough negro slaves 
to serve the needs of the planters. 

The other event was the convening of a legislature. Up to this 
time the colonists had been politically little better than slaves them- 
selves. They had no voice in their government and their governors 
had arbitrary power and used it in an arbitrary manner, making 
what laws they pleased and forcing the people to work for the benefit 
of the "London Company," the organizer of the colony. 

A system of this kind operated well enough with French and 
Spanish colonists, who had been ruled in much the same manner 
at home. But for EngHshmen, and especially for scions of the 
cavalier class, who had long possessed a voice in their own govern- 
ment at home, where their rights were jealously guarded by their 



52 The Old Dominion 

elected representatives, it operated very ill. By i6ig the v^hites in 
Virginia numbered four thousand, and the mutterings of rebellious 
discontent were rising fast into open demands. The people were 
tired of being treated as children or slaves, and asked strenuously 
for a voice in the management of their own affairs. 

The London Company, finding that its colonists might soon 
become rebels, yielded and bade Sir George Yeardley, a new gover- 
nor whom it sent out, to establish a new government. The settlements 
in Virginia — "boroughs" they were called — then numbered eleven. 
Each of these was directed to elect two " burgesses, " or representa- 
tives, to meet as a law-making assembly at Jamestown. On July 
30, 1619, this body first came together, its meeting place being the 
choir of the little Jamestown church. Thus was constituted the 
Virginia "House of Burgesses," the first legislative body ever formed 
in America. In fact it was formed before there was any other 
English settlement in America. Among its .first members was a 
planter named Jefferson, an ancestor of him who, more than a 
century and a half later, wrote the American Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. 

As Mr. Page has told us, this body from the outset showed a 
commendable spirit of independence, of the type of that shown 
afterward in Puritan New England. Its laws, indeed, had to be 
ratified by the London Company. But, on the other hand, the 
assembly had been granted the right to ratify the orders of the 
company, the Virginians thus possessing an ample share of self- 
governing power, which they were strongly disposed to maintain. 
In 1 62 1 their new privileges were confirmed to the people in a written 
constitution, under which Virginia long continued virtually to 
govern itself. This charter granted the Virginians "the privileges, 
franchises, and immunities of native-born Englishmen forever." 
We need scarcely say that they did not suffer these valued rights 
to lapse, and that the South jealously preserved the spirit of civil 
and rehgious Hberty, never forgetting this treasured birthright nor 
permitting others to overlook it. 

It is a matter of interest that it was not until about the time in 
which this charter was granted that the English colonies of the North 
began their existence in the ship's company of colonists that landed 
from the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock. The South had distinctly 
gained the start alike in colonization and in the power and privilege 



The Old Dominion 53 

of self-government. The year 1619 was made memorable in Vir- 
ginia by still another event of importance. The settlers at first had 
been all men, and this continued the case for years, few married 
men emigrating, and no unmarried women crossing to the colony. 
To remedy this serious deficiency the London Company now sent 
out ninety young women, the cost of the passage of each being fixed 
at one hundred and twenty pounds of the best tobacco — worth then 
about ninety dollars. At this price the new cargo went off rapidly. 
Young men awaited the maidens at the wharves with the tobacco 
necessary to pay for their passage. Sixty others were soon after 
sent, and the price rose to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco. 
They were soon spread through the country as wives, and liked their 
new home so well that they wrote for many of their friends to come 
across. In this way the forlorn bachelorhood of the early Ameri- 
cans was overcome. 

As regards the character of the emigrants to Virginia many of 
them had been royalists in England, officers in the war, men of 
education, of property and condition. But the waters of the Atlantic 
divided them from the political strifes of Europe. Their industry 
was employed in turning their plantations to the best advantage. 
The sending of young women as wives for the settlers made Viro-inia 
the home of its inhabitants. "Among many other blessings," says 
their statute book on one of its pages, "God Almighty hath vouch- 
safed the increase of children to this colony, who are now multiphed 
to a very considerable number." 

The genial chmate and transparent atmosphere delighted those 
who had come from the denser air of England. Every object in 
nature to them was new and wonderful. The hospitality of the 
colonists became proverbial. Labor was valuable; land was cheap; 
competence promptly followed industry. There was no need of a 
scramble, as abundance for all gushed from the earth. The 
morasses were ahve with water-fowl; the forests were nimble with 
game; the woods rustled with coveys of quail and wild turkeys, 
while they rang with the merry notes of the singing birds. Hogs ran 
at large in troops. It was truly "the best poor man's country in 
the world." 

Such were life and conditions in the first American colony. 
Going southward now from Virginia we find somewhat similar 
conditions to have existed in the Carolinas, though, with certain 



54 The Old Dominion 

differences. The following quotation will give some idea of the 
state of affairs and character of population in early South CaroHna:* 

"The cavalier element was indisputably predominant at the 
beginning of the English settlements in South Carolina. However, 
as the tide of emigration from Europe set in, the cavaHer was placed 
politically in the minority. The proud and haughty adherents of 
the throne took common cause with the proprietors, but were ulti- 
mately voted down. But in all the contests carried on by the oppo- 
nents of the Crown, there was no effort to control liberty of con- 
science. The cavalier thought himself sufficiently free under the 
protection of the Crown; while the opposing party, composed of all 
classes, advocated larger parliamentary powers, which they con- 
sidered neither inconsistent with their loyalty nor their chartered 
privileges. 

"The cavalier spirit in South Carolina, as in Virginia, was 
characterized by honor and Hberality of feeling, courtesy and high 
breeding. In the former State, these qualities were combined with 
Calvinistic piety, in the latter with warm attachment to the Angli- 
can Church, thereby forming a social basis upon which was erected 
the fabric of civil and religious liberty, without tainting rehgion 
with politics, or imbuing politics with religion. Not alone one or 
two, but all the Southern colonies, were founded by individuals whose 
prevailing motives and characteristics were zeal for the advancement 
of religious truth and political freedom." And in them all the 
cavalier was the ruling element, controlling by force of mental 
energy where inferior in numbers. 

About fifty years after the settlement of Virginia that colony 
became distinguished by the name of "The Old Dominion," an 
appellation of honor that has clung to it since, alike in fair weather 
and foul, as colony and state. How and why it received this title, 
and what significance this actually had, is a matter of interest which 
we shall endeavor to make clear. 

It must be premised that originally the whole coast, from 
Canada to Florida, was known as Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, 
the virgin queen. Edmund Spenser, the poet, when, in 1590, he 
dedicated his "Faerie Queene" to Elizabeth, spoke of her as 
queen of "England, France and Ireland, and of Virginia," thus 

*Samuel P. Day, "Down South." 



The Old Dominion 



55 




56 



The Old Dominion 



giving this unsettied American domain equal honor with the home 
kingdoms claimed for the British crown. 

A second step in this direction was taken in 1619, when the 
London Company adopted a coat-of-arms which bore the motto, 
En dat Virginia quartam. This classed it as the fifth section of the 
British Kingdom — the other four then claimed being England, 
Scotland, Ireland and France. The Virginia indicated in this 




THE OLD COURT HOUSE, WILLIAMSBURG 
Williamsburg was the first Capito! of Virginia. 

instance was not the great wilderness meant by Spenser, but the 
contracted settlement on the James and its neighboring waters. 

We must go on to the Puritan Revolution and the execution of 
Charles I for the next stage in this development of the title. Charles 
was beheaded in January, 1649. In the following October the 
Virginia House of Burgesses, made up of planters some of whom 



The Old Dominion 57 

may have fought for the dead monarch, and all of whom were of 
cavalier origin, passed an ordinance that fairly waved the flag of 
defiance in the face of Cromwell and his Parliament. They 
declared that if any one in Virginia proclaimed the execution of "the 
late most excellent and now undoubtedly sainted king, Charles I, 
to be justifiable, such person or persons should be arrested and 
punished as traitors. " The ordinance further speaks of " his sacred 
majesty that now ts," thus claiming the son of his "sainted majesty" 
as already ruhng. It went on to threaten dire punishment to any one 
who should deny his "inherent right to the colony of Virginia." 

This was very plain speaking. And this was not the whole. 
Sir William Berkeley, a hot-headed old cavalier, who was then 
governor of Virginia, went so far as to send abroad Colonel Richard 
Lee, a planter on the Potomac, who was as fiery a royalist as him- 
self, to invite King Charles II, as he called him, to come over to 
his faithful colony of Virginia. Lee crossed to Holland and saw 
the young prince, to whom he made the offer of a transatlantic crown. 
But nothing came of it. Charles had no thought of making himself 
king of a handful of colonists in a wilderness — a handsome handful, 
it is true, for Virginia then held twenty thousand souls, but not a 
population for a kingdom. 

From all this came a fairly inevitable result. Cromwell was 
not the man to be flouted in this manner, and soon a fleet was hasten- 
ing across the ocean, with guns enough to blow Jamestown off^the face 
of the earth, and with orders to bring Berkeley and his supporters 
to their senses or punish them for their insolence. It seemed sheer 
madness to attempt to resist the strength of Parliament, but 
Berkeley and the Virginia cavaliers had their blood up, and they 
made active preparations to fight. Cannon were planted on the 
river bank and others in some Dutch merchant ships then in port, 
and it seemed certain that when the Puritan fleet appeared battle 
would ensue. 

Fortunately there were men of sense at the head of the expedi- 
tion. A parley was held with Governor Berkeley, who was bidden 
to surrender to the authority of Parhament, with the promise that 
if he did so he and his people should not be molested in any way. 
These terms were accepted — it would have been sheer folly to 
refuse them — but they were accepted proudly, not cringingly. The 
paper drawn up by the Virginians is dignified and resolute in tone. 



58 The Old Dominion 

One would think that one nation was treating with another. They 
declared that they surrendered of their own good will, not under 
constraint, that they would not submit to oppression, that they 
claimed every privilege belonging to Englishmen, and stipulated that 
no man should be punished for anything he had said or done in favor 
of the king. 

There were other terms as decided as these; but none of them 
were objected to. Evidently Cromwell had no desire to get up a 
quarrel with this far-off colony, if only a decent show of sub- 
mission were made. So the fleet sailed away, the Virginians went 
on governing themselves in their own way, with no one to interfere, 
and the years passed happily on. 

In 1660 Charles II came to the throne, and the interesting fact 
is on record that he was proclaimed king in Virginia a month or so 
earlier than in England. When it became evident that he would be 
raised to the English throne, the House of Burgesses reelected 
Berkeley to the governorship from which he had been deposed, and 
the loyal old cavalier hastened to proclaim Charles as king. This 
was in March, 1660. He was not proclaimed in England till April. 
For this service the new monarch was duly grateful, his favor to 
Virginia being indicated by his issuing coins whose motto spoke of 
Virginia as a fourth section of his Kingdom — being named as of equal 
rank with England, Scotland and Ireland, and when it was known 
that the Virginians had been the first to recognize and proclaim the 
new king the title of "The Old Dominion" came to be applied to 
the colony, claiming for it precedence in honor over its sister domin- 
ion across the sea, and "The Old Dominion" it remains to this day, 
even though many who now give it this title are ignorant of its 
origin and significance. 



CHAPTER III. 

HEROES OF THE OLD COLONIAL 
SOUTHLAND 

Tobacco brings prosperity— The Indian massacres— Berkeley's tyranny— Bacon and 
the Indians — The spirit of rebellion — Bacon's march on Jamestown — The 
Commission and the defeat of the Indians — Berkeley's flight — The capture and 
burning of Jamestown — Bacon's death and Berkeley's revenge — Carolina and the 
Grand Model government — Freedom in the Carolinas — Oglethorpe and the 
Spaniards — The fight on St. Simon's Island — How Oglethorpe defeated the 
Spaniards. 

FOR many years after the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia 
constituted all there was of the South. Maryland was the 
first to follow, in Lord Baltimore's settlement, and then, at 
long intervals, the Carolinas and Georgia were added to the chaplet 
of flourishing colonies that stretched far along the Atlantic's western 
wave. 

Virginia grew and prospered; tobacco brought it comfort and 
wealth; yet it did not escape calamity. The Indians formed 
its danger point. While Powhatan, the friend of John Smith, hved, 
all went well. But he died and the spirit of the red men changed. 
The whites were pushing them back, mile by mile. If this went on 
their native dominion would soon be theirs no more. This nest of 
wasps from over the sea must be destroyed, or soon there would be 
no foothold for the Indian upon the land. 

The day of fate came on March 22, 1622. Suddenly, on the 
morning of that day, the tomahawk began its deadly work. In the 
fields, where the men were at work; at table, where the Indians sat 
as guests; in the house of the planter and the quarters of the field 
hands, death came suddenly and ruthlessly. Jamestown alone, 
warned by a friendly Indian, was on its guard. Elsewhere the 
slaughter was terrible, and it was ruthlessly continued until nearly 
half of the whites in the colony were slain. 

59 



6o Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

Such was the first massacre in Virginia, A second came in 
1644, five hundred whites being killed on this occasion. It is scarcely 
necessary to say that the whites avenged themselves. The war 
that followed the first massacre lasted ten years, during which the 
savages were hunted like wild beasts and large numbers of them 
slain. The reprisal after the second massacre was equally severe, 
and in the end all the Indians were driven from the settled region, 
which was kept for the whites alone, the red men being forced back 
into the wilderness. 

Yet the era of Indian massacres was not yet at an end. In 1676 
the incensed savages rose again and began slaughtering the frontier 
settlers. They had not been treated well by the Virginians. In 
all the history of our country the old owners of the land have suff^ered 
from the injustice of the frontiersmen. They knew only one way of 
redress, and that they took, playing, in this final outbreak, a vital 
part in the history of Virginia and bringing about one of the most 
striking events in the career of that commonwealth. It is with 
this, the first great resistance to tyranny in America, that we are here 
concerned. In it was the spirit of the Revolution of 1776, one cen- 
tury later. 

Some mention has been made in the last chapter of the doings 
of Sir WiUiam Berkeley, Governor of Virginia under Charles I. 
Restored to his ofiice after the death of Cromwell, and confirmed in 
it by Charles II, the old cavaher soon showed a new phase of his 
character. From being a governor to the people's taste he began to 
act the part of an autocrat. Legally the House of Burgesses should 
have been reelected every two years, but the existing House fell under 
Berkeley's control and, finding it subservient to his wishes, he kept 
it permanently in session. Various despotic and oppressive measures 
were passed at his instigation, the most annoying being a decree 
that tobacco should be shipped only to England, and that it should 
pay a double duty — one on leaving its Virginia port and another 
on its arrival in England. One remark made by Berkeley has be- 
come historically famous, and is worth quoting for the light it 
throws on his idea of government: 

"I thank God there are no free schools nor printing; and I hope 
we shall not have, these hundred years; for learning has brought 



Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 6i 

disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has 
divulged them, and libels against the best governments. God keep 
us from both!" 

That the Ireedom-loving planters did not bear with equanimity 
the tyranny of their governor may well be imagined. The House of 
Burgesses had hitherto been looked upon as their patent for liberty, 
and now it had been converted into an instrument of oppression. 
The public wrath smouldered, breathing out at times into hot 
utterances. Evidently only the men and the opportunity were needed 
to cause Virginia to break into open rebellion. These came in the 
Indian outbreak of 1676. 

The savages raged along the frontier with knife and tomahawk 
until more than three hundred of the colonists had fallen victims to 
the fury of their onset. It was evident that only a military force 
could put an end to this dreadful work, and the governor was called 
on to act. No persuasion could induce him to do so. The irrita- 
tion against his arbitrary acts had now reached a critical stage, and 
he feared to call out an armed force to deal with the savages, lest 
they should turn their weapons against him and his government. 

A man who dared oppose the king's governor was wanted, and 
such a man appeared in the person of Nicholas Bacon, a young 
planter who had suffered from the Indian raids, his plantation being 
attacked and his overseer and one of his servants killed. As the 
story of what followed is a very important part of Virginian colonial 
history, we select from Charles Campbell's "History of Virginia" 
the following detailed description of the career of this first hero of 
American liberty. It begins with a statement of the Indian trouble 
and the revolt against the indifference of the governor. 

"In that time of panic, the more exposed and defenseless 
families, abandoning their homes, took shelter together in houses, 
where they fortified themselves with palisades and redoubts. Neigh- 
bors, banding together, passed in cooperating parties from planta- 
tion to plantation, taking arms with them into the fields where they 
labored, and posting sentinels to give warning of the approach oi the 
insidious foe. No man ventured out of doors unarmed. Even 
Jamestown was in danger. The red men, stealing with furtive 
glance through the shade of the forest, the noiseless tread of the 
moccasin scarce stirring a leaf, prowled around like panthers in 
quest of prey. At length the people at the head of the James and 



62 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

the York, having in vain petitioned the governor for protection, 
alarmed at the slaughter of their neighbors, often murdered with 
every circumstance of barbarity, rose tumultuously in self-defense, 
to the number of three hundred men, including most, if not all, the 
officers, civil and military, and chose Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., for their 
leader. According to another authority. Bacon, before the murder 
of his overseer and servant, had been refused the commission, and 
had sworn that upon the next murder he should hear of he would 
march against the Indians, 'commission or no commission.' . 

" Bacon had been living in the colony somewhat less than three 
years, having settled at Curies, on the lower James, in the midst of 
those people who were the greatest sufferers from the depredations 
of the Indians, and he himself had frequently felt the effects of their 

inroads At the breaking out of these disturbances 

he was a member of the governor's council. He was gifted with a 
graceful person, great abilities, and a powerful elocution, and was 
the most accomplished man in Virginia; his courage and resolution 
were not to be daunted, and his affability, hospitality, and 
benevolence commanded a wide popularity throughout the colony, 

"The men who had put themselves under Bacon's command 
made preparations for marching against the Indians, but in the mean- 
time sent again to obtain from the governor a commission of general 
for Bacon, with authority to lead out his followers, at their own 
expense, against the enemy. He then stood so high in the council, 
and the exigency of the case was so pressing, that Sir William Berke- 
ley, thinking it imprudent to return an absolute refusal, concluded 
to temporize. Some of the leading men about him, it was believed, 
took occasion to foment the difference between him and Bacon, 
envying a rising luminary that threatened to eclipse them. 

"Sir William Berkeley sent his evasive reply to the application 
for a commission by some of his friends, and instructed them to 
persuade Bacon to disband his forces. He refused to comply with 
this request, and, having in twenty days mustered five hundred men, 
marched to the Falls of the James. Thereupon the governor, on the 
29th day of May, 1676, issued a proclamation declaring all such as 
should fail to return within a certain time rebels. Bacon likewise 
issued a declaration, setting forth the public dangers and grievances, 
but taking no notice of the governor's proclamation. Upon this the 



Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 63 

men of property, fearful of a confiscation, deserted Bacon and re- 
turned home; but he proceeded with fifty-seven men. 

"The movement was revolutionary, — -a miniature prototype 
of the revolution of 1688 in England, and of 1776 in America. But 
Bacon, as before mentioned, with a small body of men proceeded 
into the wilderness, up the river, his provisions being nearly ex- 
hausted before he discovered the Indians. At length a tribe of 
friendly Mannakins was found intrenched within a palisaded fort 
on the farther side of a branch of the James. Bacon endeavoring 
to procure provisions from them and offering compensation, they 
put him off with delusive promises till the third day, when the whites 
had eaten their last morsel. They now waded up to the shoulder 
across the branch to the fort, again soliciting provisions and tender- 
ing payment. In the evening one of Bacon's men was killed by a 
shot from that side of the branch which they had left, and, this 
giving rise to a suspicion of collusion with Sir Wilham Berkeley and 
treachery. Bacon stormed the fort, burnt it and the cabins, blew 
up their magazine of arms and gunpowder, and, with a loss of only 
three of his own party, put to death one hundred and fifty Indians. 
It is difficult to credit, impossible to justify, this massacre. " 

Shortly after his return from this expedition Bacon was elected 
a member of the House of Burgesses for the County of Henrico. 
On his way to Jamestown he was arrested and taken before the 
governor, who released him on his parole, but insisted that he must 
kneel at the bar of the House, confess his offense, and beg pardon of 
God, the king and the governor. Governor Berkeley now graciously 
tendered him his forgiveness, and the same day restored him to his 
seat in the council, from which he had been deposed. He was also 
promised a commission to proceed against the Indians. This, 
however, was annoyingly delayed, and Bacon, doubting the sincerity 
of the autocrat, in a few days secretly left Jamestown to join his 
friends, who were hastening from the upper country to his aid. 
That he was warranted in his distrust there is sufficient assurance 
in what the historian goes on to say: 

"In a short time the governor, seeing all quiet, issued secret 
warrants to seize him again, intending probably to raise the militia, 
and thus prevent a rescue. 

"Within three or four days after Bacon's escape, news reached 
James City that he was some thirty miles above, on the James River, 



64 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

at the head of four hundred men. Sir WilHam Berkeley summoned 
the York train-bands to defend Jamestown, but only one hundred 
obeyed the summons, and they arrived too late, and one-half of 
them were favorable to Bacon. Expresses almost hourly brought 
tidings of his approach, and in less than four days he marched into 
Jamestown unresisted, at two o'clock p. m., and drew up his force 
(now amounting to six hundred men), horse and foot, in battle- 
array on the green in front of the state-house, and within gunshot. 
In half an hour the drum beat, as was the custom, for the Assembly 
to meet, and in less than thirty minutes Bacon advanced, with a 
file of fusileers on either hand, near to the corner of the state-house, 
where he was met by the governor and council. Sir William Berkeley, 
dramatically baring his breast, cried out, 'Here! shoot me — 'fore God, 
fair mark; shoot!' frequently repeating the words. Bacon replied, 
'No, may it please your honor, we will not hurt a hair of your head, 
nor of any other man's; we are come for a commission to save our 
lives from the Indians, which you have so often promised, and now 
we will have it before we go.' 

" Bacon was walking to and fro between the files of his men, 
holding his left arm akimbo, and gesticulating violently with his 
right, he and the governor both like men distracted. In a few 
moments Sir William withdrew to his private apartment at the other 
end of the state-house, the council accompanying him. Bacon 
followed, frequently hurrying his hand from his sword-hilt to his 
hat; and after him came a detachment of fusileers, who, with their 
guns cocked and presented at a window of the Assembly chamber, 
filled with faces, repeated in menacing tone, 'We will have it, we 
will have it,' for half a minute, when a well-known burgess, waving 
his handkerchief out at the window, exclaimed, three or four times, 
'You shall have it, you shall have it;' when, uncocking their guns, 
they rested them on the ground, and stood still, till Bacon returning, 
they rejoined the main body. It was said that Bacon had before- 
hand directed his men to fire in case he should draw his sword. 
In about an hour after Bacon reentered the Assembly chamber and 
demanded a commission authorizing him to march out against the 
Indians 

"The Assembly went on to provide for the Indian war, and 
made Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., general and commander-in-chief, which 
was ratified by the governor and council. An act was also passed 



Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 65 



indemnifying Bacon and his party for their violent acts; and a 
highly-applausive letter was prepared, justifying Bacon's designs 
and proceedings, addressed to the king and subscribed by the gover- 
nor, council, and Assembly. Sir William Berkeley at the same time 
communicated to the House a letter ad- 
dressed to his majesty, saying, 'I have 
above thirty years governed the most 
flourishing country the sun ever shone 
over, but am nov^ encompassed with 
rebellion like waters, in every respeci 
like that of Masaniello, except theii 
leader.' .... 





BURNING OF JAMESTOWN 



"Bacon's vigorous measures 
at once restored confidence to the 
planters, and they resumed their 
occupations. At the head of a 
thousand men he marched 
against the Pamunkies, killing 
many and destroying their 



towns. Meanwhile the people of Gloucester, the most populous 
and loyal county, having been disarmed by Bacon, petitioned 

5 



66 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

the governor for protection against the savages. Reanimated 
by this petition, he again proclaimed Bacon a rebel and a 
traitor, and hastened over to Gloucester. Summoning the train- 
bands of that county and Middlesex, to the number of twelve hun- 
dred men, he proposed to them to pursue and put down the rebel 
Bacon when the whole assembly unanimously shouted, 'Bacon! 
Bacon! Bacon!' and withdrew from the field, still repeating the 
name of that popular leader, the Patrick Henry of his day, and 
leaving the aged cavalier governor and his attendants to them- 
selves. The issue was now fairly joined between the people and the 
governor 

"Bacon, before he reached the head of York River, hearing 
from Lawrence and Drummond of the governor's movements, 
exclaimed, that 'it vexed him to the heart that, while he was hunting 
wolves which were destroying innocent lambs, the governor and 
those with him should pursue him in the rear with full cry; and 
that he was like corn between two millstones, which would grind him 
to powder if he didn't look to it.' He marched immediately back 
against the governor, who, finding himself abandoned, again, on 
the twenty-ninth of July, proclaimed Bacon a rebel, and made his 
escape, with a few friends, down York River and across the Chesa- 
peake Bay to Accomac, on the Eastern Shore. " 

As a result of all these events, and those of minor importance 
which we have not stated, the movement was gradually diverted 
from an expedition against the Indians into a civil war, in which the 
friends of Bacon strongly advised the deposal of the tyrannical 
governor. Heedless of Berkeley's actions. Bacon continued his 
operations against the Indians, and did not desist until they were 
defeated and dispersed. Many of their towns were burned, several 
tribes perished from hunger, and the survivors were so reduced in 
numbers that they never again ventured to make depredations 
upon the whites. The Indian question was definitely settled, so 
far as Virginia was concerned. 

Meanwhile Berkeley had returned to Jamestown. On learning 
of this. Bacon, his Indian wars ended, collected a force several 
hundred strong and marched upon the capital, bringing his Indian 
captives with him. Such was now the situation in the war be- 
tween the Rebels and the Royalists, as the opposing parties came 
to be called. Our historian continues his narrative as follows: — 






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Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 67 

"Finding the town defended by a palisade ten paces in width, 
running across the neck of the peninsula, he rode along the work and 
reconnoitred the governor's position. Then, dismounting from his 
horse, he animated his fatigued men to advance at once, and, leading 
them close to the palisade, sounded a defiance with the trumpet, 
and fired upon the garrison. The governor remained quiet, hoping 
that want of provisions would soon force Bacon to retire; but he 
supplied his troops from Sir William Berkeley's seat, at Greenspring, 
three miles distant. The governor afterwards complained that 'his 
dwelling-house at Greenspring was almost ruined; his household 
goods, and others of great value, totally plundered; that he had not a 
bed to lie on; two great beasts, three hundred sheep, seventy horses 
and mares, all his corn and provisions, taken away.' 

"Bacon adopted a singular stratagem, and one hardly com- 
patible with- the rules of chivalry. Sending out small parties of 
horse, he captured the wives of several of the principal loyahsts then 
with the governor, and among them the lady of Colonel Bacon, Sr., 
Madame Bray, Madame Page, and Madame Ballard. Upon 
their being brought into the camp, Bacon sends one of them into 
Jamestown to carry word to their husbands that his purpose was to 
place their wives in front of his men in case of a sally. Colonel 
Ludwell reproaches the rebels 'with ravishing of women from 
their homes, and hurrying them about the country in their rude 
camps, often threatening them with death.' But, according to 
another and more impartial authority. Bacon made use of the ladies 
only to complete his battery, and removed them out of harm's way 
at the time of the sortie. He raised by moonlight a circumvallation 
of trees, earth, and brushwood around the governor's outworks. 
At daybreak next morning the governor's troops, being fired upon, 
made a sortie, but they were driven back, leaving their drum and 
their dead behind them. Upon the top of the work which he had 
thrown up, and where alone a sally could be made. Bacon exhibited 
the captive ladies to the views of their husbands and friends in the 
town, and kept them there until he completed his works." 

As a result of these active proceedings, the followers of Berkeley, 
though superior in numbers to those of Bacon, and well entrenched, 
hastily retired, leaving their antagonist master of the situation. 
Bacon at once determined to burn the town, so that the "rogues 
should harbor there no more." It was accordingly set on fire and 



68 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

laid in ashes. Jamestown at this period, though seventy years old, 
consisted only of a church and some sixteen or eighteen well-built 
brick houses. Its population was about a dozen families, since not 
all the houses were inhabited. That was practically the end of 
Virginia's first capital, though it was not finally abandoned until 
twenty years later. The only relic that remains of it is the ruined 
tower of the old brick church. 

" Bacon now marched to York River, and crossed at Tindall's 
(Gloucester) Point, in order to encounter Colonel Brent, who was 
marching against him from the Potomac with twelve hundred men. 
But the greater part of his men, hearing of Bacon's success, desert- 
ing their colors, declared for him, 'resolving, with the Persians, to go 
and worship the rising sun.' Bacon, making his headquarters 
at Colonel Warmer's, called a convention in Gloucester, and 
administered the oath to the people of that county, and began 
to plan another expedition against the Indians, or, as some report, 
against Accomac, when he fell sick of a dysentery brought on by 
exposure. Retiring to the house of a Dr. Pate, and lingering for 
some weeks, he died." 

Ending here our extracts from Campbell's "History," we may 
proceed with the story of Berkeley's subsequent operations. With 
the death of the highly capable young leader, the first American 
rebeUion against tyranny — ox revolution, as some designate it^ 
came to a sudden and disastrous end. The men, having lost their 
energetic commander, quickly dispersed, leaving Berkeley once more 
master of affairs. Through the dispensation of nature he had 
regained his full power, and he proceeded to use it with merciless 
severity. Bacon had escaped him; even his place of interment w^as 
concealed; the vindictive governor could not vent his wrath upon 
the patriot's lifeless remains. But Bacon's friends and supporters 
lived and were unsheltered from his anger. Troops had been 
sent him from England, and he used these to glut his revengeful 
cruelty. He hung more than twenty of the principal people with 
scarcely a form of a trial, and might have proceeded to greater 
extremes had not the Assembly insisted that these executions should 
cease. 

Drummond, one of Bacon's chief supporters, fell into the hands 
of the revengeful governor. "You are very welcome, Mr. Drum- 
mond," said Berkeley, "I am more glad to see you than any man in 



Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 69 

Virginia. You shall be hanged in half an hour." And he was. 
"God has been inexpressibly merciful to this poor province," wrote 
the pious governor, after one of his executions. 

But King Charles II was far from pleased with the vindictive 
spirit shown by his American Heutenant. He said: "That old fool 
has hung more men in that naked country than I did for the 
murder of my father." Berkeley was recalled by Charles II, 
and was reprimanded by him so severely that he is said to have 
died of a broken heart in consequence — an end for which no one 
will pity him. 

It is a singular and suggestive coincidence that, just a century 
after the period of this ineffective rebelhon, the descendants of 
those engaged in it met again at Williamsburg, then the capital of 
Virginia, and proclaimed a new rebellion, this time destined to be 
successful against the tyrant who had then succeeded to the EngHsh 
throne. What might have been the result of this first rebellion, 
had Bacon lived, it is impossible to say. 

The spirit of liberty, so actively displayed in Virginia, was 
not confined to that colony. It existed in all the colonies. But 
there is nothing more which we are here called upon to say about it 
except in Carolina, as the province afterwards divided into North 
and South Carolina was first called. In this colony a vigorous effort 
was made to establish an autocratic system of government, an effort 
which signally failed through the resolute opposition of the people. 
The whole affair was a singularly curious one, and the details of it 
cannot fail to prove of interest. 

The original settlers of Carolina came from various quarters. 
Some came from Virginia, some from the West Indies, some from 
England, while at later dates Dutch, Huguenots, Germans, Scotch 
Highlanders and Scotch-Irish sought that promising land. It was 
a composite population, with the Anglo-Saxon element predominant. 
After the Bacon Rebellion a number of the fugitives from Berkeley's 
wrath crossed the borders and made for themselves homes in the 
new colony, bringing with them their sentiment of resistance to 
tyranny. 

In 1663 Charles II had granted the province south of Vir- 
ginia to a number of his land-hungry courtiers, eight in all, including 
the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Clarendon and six other boon 
comrades of the King. The new proprietors were given a full 



yo Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

measure of power and privilege over the people, whom they pro- 
posed to control for their own especial benefit. There was, in their 
view, far too much liberty in the other English colonies. They did 
not propose to have in theirs such pestilent disturbers of lordly 
authority as free thought and free institutions, and therefore set 
out to devise a system of government which would effectually 
dispose of the malignant fallacy of popular liberty. 

John Locke, the celebrated English philosopher, was asked to 
draw up a system of government for the new colony. A remarkable 
scheme was that he produced. Made in the retirement of his study, 
and based upon conditions of society utterly unlike those of the 
thinly-settled American wilderness, it was as ridiculous a project as 
could well have been put on paper. We here present the main 
features of this "Grand Model" system, as it was grandiloquently 
called. 

Carolina was to be divided into counties, each to consist of 
eight seigniories, eight baronies, and four precincts. Each precinct 
was to consist of six colonies, and each seigniory, barony and colony 
to contain twelve thousand acres. The seigniories were retained 
absolutely by the eight proprietors; the baronies were assigned to 
other members of the nobility; the precincts were granted to the 
people. 

Two orders of nobility were instituted, landgraves and casiques 
— there being as many landgraves as there were counties, and 
twice as many casiques. Each landgrave was to hold four and 
each caslque two baronies. Manors were also permitted, con- 
sisting of not less than three thousand or more than twelve thousand 
acres In any one trait, their holders to be nobles of lesser grade. 

The "Grand Model" scheme goes on describing how the 
courts and the councils should be organized, how trials should be 
conducted and legislation performed; of all of which it must 
suffice to say that all power was retained by the proprietors and 
their appointed lords. As for any rights or privileges belonging 
to the people, no such ideas seem to have penetrated Locke's 
philosophic mind. The people at large were not permitted to vote 
nor to hold land. They must be content to work for the noble 
landgraves or casiques, or the lords of manors, and could not even 
leave the land they tilled without permission from Its owner. It 
was the mediaeval serfdom restored. The list of freeholders, 



Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 



71 



who alone had the power to vote, was limited to those holding fifty 
acres or more of land. Just how they were to obtain this land is 
not stated. 

Religious freedom was similarly restricted, the Church of 
England being made the established and the only recognized 
church of the province. The following provision was added : "No 
man, above the age of seventeen years, shall have any benefit of 

the laws, whose 
name is not re- 
corded as a mem- 
ber of some church 
or religious profes- 
sion." The pro- 
prietors did not 
propose to have 
any heretical opin- 
ion in their prov- 
ince. 

It will readily 
be perceived that 
a government to 
be administered 
by nobles was not 
well adapted to a 
country in which 
not a nobleman 
existed, and that 
people who had- 
always worked 
"for their own 
hand" were little 
likely to work as 
serfs on a noble- 
man's estate. The 
plain and simple laws under which the colonists had hitherto 
lived were suited to their circumstances, while the "Grand 
Model," with its landgraves, casiques, and other grand officers 
was in ridiculous contrast with the existing conditions of sparse 
population, rude cabins and pioneer habits. 




AN INDIAN WOMAN 
One of the Sculptures made for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 



72 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

The proprietors made an effort to establish their pet system 
and very soon found themselves in hot w^ater. The free-spirited 
colonists, accustomed to help themselves to land w^herever they 
found it unoccupied, and to work it for their own benefit, were not 
the kind of people on whose necks a yoke could be laid from the 
other side of the sea. They refused utterly to be bound by the 
new regulations, and contests and turbulence succeeded. This 
continued for twenty years. Governors were driven out of the 
country, new ones were chosen by the people themselves in defiance 
of the proprietors, and a state of rebeUion existed as decided in its 
way as that about the same time on foot in Virginia. Finally, 
in 1693, the fight was given up by the proprietors and the "Grand 
Model" withdrawn. As for the American "order of nobility" it 
died and left no trace behind. The severe taxes which the proprie- 
tors had laid, and which the people would not pay, were at the same 
time reduced, the colonists were given the right of suffrage, and 
peace and prosperity followed. The people had won, and the 
cause of popular sovereignty had been once more confirmed. 

It was not until 1729 that Carolina was formally broken up 
into the two colonies of North and South Carolina, though this had 
practically been done long before, the province being so large that 
it became necessary to send out two governors. In 1719 the exor- 
bitant claims of the proprietors led to a revolutionary movement in 
South Carohna, the people refusing to pay these claims. Again they 
dispensed with the governor set over them, and chose one of their 
own — proclaiming him in the name of the king. For ten years this 
difficulty continued, and then the disgusted lords sold out their 
rights to the king, and the two Carolinas came under royal rule. 
The fight for freedom had gone on for more than half a century and 
ended in the triumph of the people. 

There is another hero of the early South of whom it is important 
here to speak, the famous General Oglethorpe, the founder of 
Georgia. The South, prior to 1729, consisted of three colonies 
only, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. It was made four in 1729, 
by the division of Carolina into two. In 1733 a fifth was added, 
Georgia being settled in that year. 

The Spanish in Florida had not viewed with approval the 
establishment of new English colonies along the coast, on land which 
they claimed as their own. The Carolinas were, in their opinion, 



Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 73 

part of Florida, and wa\. arose between the two hostile peoples. 
In 1702 an expedition from Charleston sought to capture St. 
Augustine. In 1706 a Spanish and French fleet endeavored to 
capture Charleston. Both efforts were failures, costly both in 
men and money. 

There were wars with the Indians also. North Carolina had 
its Indian massacre in 171 1, when the Tuscaroras fell on the 
settlements and killed one hundred and thirty persons. In return 
the Tuscaroras were utterly defeated, and driven north to join 
their brethern, the Iroquois tribes of New York. South Carolina 
was exposed to similar perils. In 1715 a large number of tribes, 
headed by the Yamassees, invaded the colony, which for a time 
was in imminent peril of destruction. In the end, however, 
the settlers made headway and gained a complete victory, driving 
the Yamassees from their territory and forcing them to take 
refuge in Florida. Such was the state of affairs in 1733, when 
James Oglethorpe arrived in the Savannah River with a colony of 
debtors rescued from English prisons, and proceeded to form a 
settlement on the immediate borders of the Spanish settlements in 
Florida. It seemed very sure now that hostilities would soon break 
out between the two colonies, the Spaniards viewing this settlement 
as a direct invasion of the soil. 

Nothing took place, however, until 1739, when a war began 
in Europe between England and Spain. Then, as in the case of the 
South Carolina hostilities above mentioned, the English were first 
in the field in the colonies, Oglethorpe invading Florida and 
attacking St. Augustine. Some of the Spanish forts fell, but St. 
Augustine firmly held its own, and the invader was obliged to 
withdraw with little reward for his pains. 

The Spaniards bided their time. Not until 1742 were they 
ready. In May of that year a powerful expedition, consisting of 
fifty-six vessels and about seven thousand men, set out from 
Havana for St. Augustine, organized for the purpose of attacking the 
English. It looked very serious now for the infant colony of 
Georgia, but Oglethorpe was an old soldier, who had won fame in 
European wars, and he lost no time in making all available prepara- 
tions for the coming onslaught. His force being very much smaller 
than that ot the Spaniards, he was obliged to withdraw it to the fort 
at Frederica, on St. Simon's Island, abandoning the small fort at the 



74 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

sea end of the island from which he had endeavored to prevent 
their entering the harbor. On came the Spanish fleet, passing up the 
Altamaha River until within four miles of Frederica, at which point 
it landed about five thousand men, who took possession of the 
abandoned fort. 




THE OLDEST HOUSE IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA 

On the 7th of July a part of this force advanced until within a 
mile of the fort at Frederica, at this point they were discovered by 
Oglethorpe's scouts and the alarm was given. Oglethorpe was 
too bold a soldier to be content to wait their coming. No sooner 
had the news of their near approach reached him than he ad- 
vanced with a party of Indians, and rangers, with the Highlanders 
then on parade, leaving orders for the regiment to follow at 
all speed. His purpose was to engage the Spaniards in the forest 
defiles before they could get into the open savanna and display 
their forces for defense. 

This movement was attended with the greatest success, Ogle- 



Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 75 

thorpe attacking them with such impetuous courage that the Span- 
iards, entangled in the woodland paths, were driven back in dis- 
order, and nearly the whole of them killed, wounded or taken 
prisoners. They consisted of more than a hundred of the best 
woodsmen of the invading army and a number of Indians. The 
remainder of this interesting story is so graphically told by Rev. 
WiUiam B. Stevens, in his "History of Georgia," that it seems 
advisable to give it in his words: 

"The pursuit was continued several miles, to an open meadow 
or savanna, upon the edge of which he posted three platoons of the 
regiment and a company of Highland foot, so as to be covered by 
the woods from the enemy, who were obhged to pass through the 
meadow under the English lire. Hastening back to Frederica, he 
got in readiness the rangers and marines; but scarcely were they 
in marching order when he heard firing in the direction of his 
ambushed troops, and, speeding thither, met two of the platoons, 
which, in the «moke and drifting rain, had retreated before the 
advance of Don Antonio Barba who, with one hundred grenadiers 
and two hundred infantry, consisting of Indians and negroes, had 
pushed into the meadow and drove out the ambuscade with loud 
huzzas and rolling drums. The soldiers informed Oglethorpe that 
all his force was routed; but, finding one platoon and a company of 
rangers missing, and still hearing firing in the direction of the 
woods, he ordered the officers to rally their men and follow him. 

"In the meantime this platoon and company of rangers, under 
the command of Lieutenants Sutherland and Mackay, instead of 
retreating; with their comrades, no sooner reached the wood than 
by a skilfully-executed detour they gained the rear of the pursuing 
enemy, and, at a point where the road passed from the forest to the 
open marsh across a small semicircular cove, planted themselves in 
ambuscade in the thick palmettoes by which this narrow pass was 
nearly surrounded. 

"Scarcely had they secreted themselves near this defile, when 
the Spaniards, on their return, marched out of the wood, and, sup- 
posing themselves secure from attack, protected as they were on the 
one side by an open morass and on the other by the crescent-shaped 
hedge of palmettoes and underwood, they stacked their arms and 
yielded themselves to repose. Sutherland and Mackay, who from 
tneir hiding-places had anxiously watched all their movements, now 



76 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

raised the signal of attack, — a Highland cap upon a sword, — and 
the soldiers poured in upon the unsuspecting enemy a well-delivered 
and most deadly fire. Volley succeeded volley, and the sand was 
strewed with the dead and dying. A few of the Spanish officers 
attempted, though in vain, to re-form their broken ranks; disciphne 
was gone, orders were unheeded, safety alone was sought; and when, 
with a Highland shout of triumph, the platoon burst among them 
with leveled bayonet and flashing claymore, the panic-stricken foe 
fled in every direction, — some to the marsh, where they mired, and 
were taken, — some along the defile, where they were met by the 
tomahawk and the broadsword, — and some into the thicket, where 
they became entangled and lost; and a few only escaped to their 
camp. Their defeat was complete. 

"Barba was taken, after being mortally wounded; another 
captain, a lieutenant, two sergeants, two drummers, and one hun- 
dred and sixty privates, were killed, and a captain and nineteen 
men were taken prisoners. This was a feat of arms as brilliant as 
it was successful, and won for the gallant troops the highest praise. 
Oglethorpe, with the two platoons, did not reach the scene of this 
action, which has ever since borne the appropriate name of 'Bloody 
Marsh,' until the victory was achieved; and, to show his sense of 
their services, he promoted the brave young officers who had gained 
it, on the very field of their valor. 

"The retreating enemy were pursued into their camp. On the 
next day Oglethorpe withdrew his forces to Frederica. The mis- 
fortunes of the Spaniards caused dissensions among their leaders, 
learning of which, Oglethorpe resolved to surprise them by a night 
attack. 

"For this purpose he marched down, on the twelfth of July, five 
hundred men, and, leaving them within a mile of the Spanish quar- 
ters, went forward at night with a small party to reconnoitre, intend- 
ing to surprise them, but was prevented by the treachery of a French- 
man among Captain Carr's marines, who, firing his musket, sounded 
the alarm, and, favored by the darkness, deserted to the enemy. 
Finding himself thus discovered, the general distributed the drums 
about the wood, to represent a large force, and ordered them to beat 
the grenadiers' march, which they did for half an hour, and then, all 
being still, noiselessly returned to Frederica. 

"Aware of his weakness, and fearing that the disclosures which 



Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 77 

the Frenchman might make would embolden them to surround and 
destroy him, which their superior force by land and sea would easily 
enable them to do, he devised an ingenious stratagem to defeat his 
information and retrieve the effects ot his desertion. The next day 
he prevailed with a prisoner, and gave him a sum of money, to carry 
a letter privately and deliver it to that Frenchman who had deserted. 
This letter was written in French, as if from a friend of his, telling 
him he had received the money; that he should strive to make the 
Spaniards believe the English were weak; that he should undertake 
to pilot up their boats and galleys, and then bring them under the 
woods where he knew the hidden batteries were; and that if he could 
bring that about, he should have double the reward he had already 
received; but if he failed in thus decoying them under the guns of 
the water-battery, to use all his influence to keep them at least three 
days more at Fort St. Simon's, as within that time, according to 
advices just received, he should be reinforced by two thousand 
infantry and six men-of-war, which had already sailed from 
Charleston, and, by way of postscript, he was cautioned against 
mentioning that Admiral Vernon was about to make a descent upon 
St. Augustine. 

"The Spanish prisoner got into the camp, and was immediately 
carried before the general, Don Manuel de Montiano. He was 
asked how he escaped, and whether he had any letters, but, denying 
his having any, was strictly searched, and the letter found in his 
possession. Under a promise of pardon, he confessed that he had 
received money to deliver it to the Frenchman, for the letter was 
not directed. The Frenchman denied knowing anything of its 
contents, or having received any money, or having had any corre- 
spondence with Oglethorpe, and vehemently protested that he was 
not a spy." 

The Spanish commander was in a dilemma. The Frenchman 
had been sent by him to the English camp to act as a spy, but there 
was now reason to believe that he had been playing the part of a 
double spy. A military council was called, in which the question 
was warmly debated, most of the members believing that the 
letter was genuine, and advising a retreat before it should be too 
late. The commander was for a time in doubt what to think, but 
when, in the midst of the debate, word was brought him that three 
vessels had been seen off the bar, his perplexity disappeared. 



78 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 

What could these be but the vanguard of the threatened fleet ? 
No doubt remained now in his mind that the letter told the truth, 
and that the peril of being hemmed in by sea and land was imminent. 
Orders were given for an immediate embarkation and retreat, and 
this was done in such wild haste that a considerable quantity of 
military stores was abandoned in the island, the Spanish panic 
being increased by the appearance of two vessels which Oglethorpe 
sent down the stream from Frederica. 

The victory gained by General Oglethorpe, under such circum- 
stances, won him warm congratulations not only from the other 
colonies, but from the English authorities in the home country. 
Considering that he had only two ships and six hundred men to 
oppose to the fifty-six vessels and five thousand men of the Spanish 
force, that he had baffled them for fifteen days, whipped them 
wherever he met them, prevented them from approaching his fort, 
and finally compelled them to retreat with severe losses in men and 
material, was certainly a most signal success. His vigilance, the 
skill of his plans, his brilliant assault on the enemy's force, and 
finally the ingenious stratagem by which he induced them to retreat, 
were all indicative of a high quality of military genius, and saved 
Georgia, and perhaps South Carolina, from falling under Spanish 
rule. The repulse of so formidable a force by such a handful of 
troops has no parallel in the colonial history of America and James 
Oglethorpe may justly be classed among the leading heroes of the 
early South. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MANOR LIFE IN OLD COLONY DAYS 

How the Virginia planters lived — Their hospitality — The classes of the people — Town 
and country life — Home manners — Training of boys and girls — Occupations of 
the people — Effect of product, climate and race — The farmers and the planters — 
The charms of rural Hfe — Governor Spotswood, and the Knights of the Golden 
Horseshoe — ^The expedition to the Blue Ridge — A delightful journey — The valley 
discovered — Two boy surveyors and their work — Lord Fairfax and Greenway 
Lodge — ^Washington's journey to the French forts. 

LIFE was broad and ample, generous and fine-spirited, in the 
South in old colony times. It was a rural life, strongly 
contrasted with the gregarious life of the North. The 
populous towns and villages of the Puritan, Dutch, and Quaker 
settlements were replaced in the southern colonies by large planta- 
tions, on which the families of the planters lived in patriarchal state, 
surrounded by their multitude of happy and contented dependents. 
As they grew rich from the sale of the crops of tobacco of Virginia 
or product of the rice fields of the farther south, the planters built 
themselves comfortable mansions, handsomely furnished and 
decorated. Within were broad stairways, rising out of ample halls, 
which were often tastefully adorned with trophies of the chase. 
The richest and most ornamental woods were used in the interior 
woodwork, the mantels and wainscots being frequently of richly 
carved mahogany, while solid oak and mahogany supplied the 
material for chairs and tables. The sideboards were heaped with 
glittering gold and silver plate, the planters vieing with one another 
in the display of wealth and importance. 

These stately mansions were not the close-built, thick-walled 
dwellings of the North, erected as forts against the assaults of the 
frost king. Those of the South lay freely open to the grateful 
breezes and genial sunrays of their softer clime, fronted by deep 

79 



8o Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

cool porches screened from the summer heat by trelhses of flowering 
vines, while the surrounding grounds were richly adorned with 
beds of the fairest blooms. 

Each mansion had its numerous household ot negro servants, 
whose dusky faces were to be seen everywhere about the house 
and its surroundings. The field hands dwelt in separate quarters, 
each cabin having its garden and poultry yard. There was abundant 
work to do, for every estate was in its way a separate industrial 
community, most of the articles needed being made by slave artisans 
on the estate itself. But there were plenty of hands to do the work, 
so that it was rare for any one to be pushed beyond his powers. 
In fact, the system was one of modern patriarchism, and the associa- 
tion more that of a great family than ot task-master and slave. No 
doubt, in those old days, content and comfort were the prevailing 
elements. 

The great planters lived like lords of the manor, keeping stables 
of fine horses and packs of hunting dogs, riding and hunting being 
favorite modes of passing the time. In going to church, or visiting 
neighboring planters, the elaborately grand coach, drawn by six 
stately horses, was brought into service, and with its dusky driver 
and uniformed outriders made a showy display. 

Never was there more generous or open-handed hospitality. 
Visitors were welcomed with the utmost warmth. Travelers from 
a distance were especially welcome, for in those days news moved 
slowly, and important events were often learned only from some 
talkative guest. It was not uncommon to post a servant in the 
highway to look out for any traveler on horseback. When one 
such appeared the bowing and smiling negro would obsequiously 
invite him to ride in and spend the night at his master's mansion. 
If he consented, he would be treated to a noble entertainment, a hunt 
or other sport being got up for him the next day and every induce- 
ment held out to him to prolong his visit. There was one unfortu- 
nate result from this, the inns were miserable. Boniface could not 
well compete with the planter's hospitality. 

As regards the custom here mentioned, we may quote corrobora- 
tive testimony from Smythe, an observant traveler of that period, and 
one who could speak from the card, as he had himself abundantly 
enjoyed the hospitality here spoken of: 

*' When a person of more genteel figure than common calls at 



1 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 8i 




AN OLD MANOR HALLWAY 
A view of an old house built in New Castle, Del., in 1801. 



82 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 



an ordinary (the name of their inns) for refreshment and lodging 
for a night, as soon as any of the gentlemen of fortune in the neigh- 
borhood hears of it, he either comes for him himself, or sends him a 
polite and pressing invitation to his home, where he meets with 
entertainment and accommodation infinitely superior in every respect 
to what he could have received at the inn. If he should happen 
to be fatigued with traveling, he is treated in the most hospitable 





HOLLY HEDGE IN A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN'S ESTATE 

and genteel manner, and his servants and horses also fare pl'enteously 
for as long a time as he chooses to stay. All this is done with the 
best grace imaginable, without even a hint being thrown out of a 
curiosity or wish to know his name." 

Smythe goes on to say : "The Virginians are generous, extremely 
hospitable, and possess very liberal sentiments. . . . To com- 
municate an idea of the general hospitality that prevails in Virginia, 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 83 

and, indeed, throughout all the southern provinces, it may not be 
improper to represent some pecuhar customs that are universal; for 
instance, if a traveler, even a negro, observes an orchard full of fine 
fruit, either apples or peaches, in or near his way, he alights without 
ceremony, and fills his pockets, or even a bag, if he has one, without 
asking permission; and if the proprietor should see him he is not in 
the least offended, but makes him perfectly welcome, and assists 
him in choosing out the finest fruit." This, however, he considers 
by no means remarkable, in view of the superabundance of fruit; 
peaches, for instance, being frequently fed to the hogs. 

It will be of interest to continue our quotations from this obser- 
vant traveler: 

"There is a greater distinction supported between the different 
classes of life here than perhaps in any of the rest of the colonies, nor 
does that spirit of equality and leveling principle which pervades the 
greater part of America prevail to such an extent in Virginia. How- 
ever, there appears to be but three degrees of rank amongst all the 
inhabitants exclusive of the negroes. The first consists of gentlemen 
of the best famihes and fortunes of the colony, who are here much 
more respectable and numerous than in any other province in 
America. These, in general, have had a liberal education, possess 
enlightened understandings, and a thorough knowledge of the world, 
that furnishes them with an ease and freedom of manners and con- 
versation highly to their advantage in exterior, of which no vicissi- 
tude of fortune or place can divest them; they being actually, 
according to my ideas, the most agreeable and the best companions, 
friends, and neighbors that need be desired. 

"The greater number of them keep their carriages and have 
handsome services of plate; but they all, without exception, have 
studs as well as sets of elegant and beautiful horses. Those of the 
second degree in rank are very numerous, being perhaps half the 
inhabitants, and consist of such a variety, singularity, and mixture 
of characters that the exact general criterion and leading feature can 
scarcely be ascertained. However, they are generous, friendly, 
and hospitable in the extreme; but mixed with such an appearance 
of rudeness, ferocity and haughtiness, which is in fact only a want of 
polish, occasioned by their deficiencies in education and a knowledge 
of mankind, as well as by their general intercourse with slaves. 
"These were not men of poor estate. Many of them possessed 



S4 Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

ample fortunes, but their families are not so ancient nor respectable; 
a circumstance here held in some estimation. And they are all 
excessively attached to every species of sport, gaming and dissipa- 
tion, particularly horse-racing, and that most barbarous of all 
diversions, that peculiar species of cruelty, cock-fighting. Numbers 
of them are truly valuable members of society, and few or none defi- 
cient in the excellencies of the intellectual faculties, and a natural 
genius which, though in a great measure unimproved, is generally 
bright and splendid in an uncommon degree. 

"The third, or lower class of the people (who ever compose the 
bulk of mankind), are in Virginia fewer in number in proportion 
to the rest of the inhabitants than perhaps in any other country in 
the Universe. Even these are kind, hospitable and generous; yet 
liberal, noisy and rude. They are much addicted to inebriety, and 
averse to labor. They are likewise overburdened with an imperti- 
nent and insuperable curiosity, that renders them peculiarly dis- 
agreeable and troublesome to strangers." 

Smythe, however, did not find the prying spirit of this class to 
be peculiar to the poor whites of Virginia, ior he found, as he goes 
on to remark, curiosity and inquisitiveness still more ofi^ensively 
developed among the Yankees. 

He says: *'Yet these undesirable qualities they possess by no 
means in an equal degree with the generality of the inhabitants of 
New England, whose religion and government have encouraged, and 
indeed instituted and established, a kind of inquisition of forward 
impertinence and prying intrusion against every person that may 
be compelled to pass through that troublesome, illiberal country; 
from which description, however, there are no doubt many excep- 
tions." 

The poor whites here spoken of were very largely the descend- 
ants of indentured servants. These, sharing the distaste of the 
whites in general for manual labor, yet rarely acquiring property 
and largely devoid of education, formed far the most undesirable 
part of the population, many of them living in a state of vice and 
degradation. In the towns there was a distinct middle class, 
consisting of merchants and traders, but in view of the small size of 
southern towns in colonial times, these could not have been very 
numerous. In South Carolina, indeed, no well-defined class existed 
between the too-widely separated ranks of planters and slaves. 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days ^5 

As concerns town life, Virginia was almost destitute, prior to 
1700, of any place to which the name of town could properly be 
applied. Jamestown stood alone, and this never rose to a dignity 
superior to that of a village. We have seen how sparsely it was 
peopled when destroyed in 1676. Williamsburg succeeded James- 
town, but did not surpass it greatly in importance. CaroHna, on the 
contrary, though a planters' colony, had a better development of 
town and city life. Charleston in particular soon rose into im- 
portance, and for many years practically embraced the whole 
settlement of South Carohna. Georgia in the same way began its 
development with the city of Savannah. 

Back in the country, toward the mountains, the mode of life 
differed essentially from that on the great fertile levels. Here the 
farms were small, the people poor, and hunting divided their atten- 
tion with farming. They lived far apart, with wood-paths for their 
only roads, and their life was very simple and isolated. 

Returning to the colonial manor house, we may present another 
picture of its type of life worth quoting for its vividness. It is 
given by the Chevalier de Chastellux, in his Travels in America." 
The Chevalier was an officer in the French army at Yorktown and 
was a personal friend of Washington. He thus describes his expe- 
rience of Virginia hospitality: 

"In the absence of the General (who had gone to Williamsburg) 
his mother and wife received us with all the politeness, ease and 
cordiality natural to his family. But as in America the ladies are 
never thought sufficient to do the honors of the house, five or six 
Nelsons were assembled to receive us, among others. Secretary 
Nelson, uncle to the General, his two sons, and two of the General's 
brothers. These young men were married, and several of them 
were accompanied by their wives and children, and distinguished 
only by their Christian names; so that during the two days which I 
spent in this truly patriarchal house, it was impossible for me to 
find out their degrees of relationship. The company assembled 
either in the parlor or saloon, especially the men, from the hour of 
breakfast, to that of bed-time; but the conversation was always 
agreeable and well supported. If you were desirous of diversifying 
the scene, there were some good French and English authors at 
hand. An excellent breakfast at nine o'clock, a sumptuous dinner 
at two, tea and punch in the afternoon, and an elegant little supper 



86 Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

divided the day most happily for those whose stomachs were never 
unprepared. It is worth observing that on this occasion, where 
fifteen or twenty people (four of whom were strangers to the family 
or the country) were assembled together, and by bad weather forced 
to stay often in doors, not a syllable was said about play. How 
many parties of trictrac, whist and lotto, would with us have been 
the consequence of such obstinate bad weather!" 

An old-fashioned southern plantation, in fact, presented a type 
of domesticity of which few traces remain, and which was one of the 
purest, sweetest and most agreeable types of social life ever known. 
We have its nearest type in the nomadic life of the East, as described 
in the Scriptural story of Abraham, but here there were engrafted 
on the tented simplicity of that ancient day all the grace and 
courtesy and all the belongings of modern civilization. 

While the power which the owner of the estate possessed over 
his slaves, and the isolation which his family suffered from the very 
institution itself, gave to him an influence over his wife and children 
which, in fact, as well as in name, constituted him the head of the 
family; yet there has never been a home in which the wife was so 
.important and so dominant, for there cannot be a home in which 
the domestic part was so important. Upon her fell the duty of 
supervising the household, its occupants, and its affairs, and of 
superintending the conduct and care of the negro women and chil- 
dren. She was mistress in the true sense of that word, for in her 
domain her word was law of the house and of the " quarters. " This 
produced a simple order of thought which was curiously characteris- 
tic of those people. 

In these households the Bible was the ordinary text-book. 
Family worship was conducted regularly, and without regard to the 
personal piety of the head of the family. It was one of the inherited 
customs to be kept up and made a part of the daily life of the house. 
The children had no menial duties to perform; but were raised with 
a certain dislike and contempt for menial labor, because it was per- 
formed for them by slaves. 

Freedom from this form of duty was not, however, followed by 
freedom from labor or occupation. In every such household the 
children were kept occupied constantly, and were trained from their 
earliest childhood in such labors and accomplishments as were com- 
mon to the country, and were supposed to be needed in those who 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 



87 



were to be the masters and mistresses of such estabhshments. The 
boys became superb horsemen, excellent shots, skilful sportsmen, 
and admirable farmers from their boyhood. They were trained in 
the open air, so as to bear fatigue, to be capable of great endurance, 
and to be fit to become the masters and owners of large estates. 
While they might or might not work with their hands in the actual 
labor of the farm, they were taught how it ought to be done, so as to 
cake, at a very early age, the care of a plantation. 





AN OLD SOUTHERN GARDEN, "HAMPTON," MARYLAND 

The same training was given to the girls for the same purpose. 
They early became notable housewives; they were personally made 
expert with the needle; they became splendid horsewomen; and, 
if a habit of command soon appeared, it was sweetened and softened 
by the constant supervision of the sick and care for the aged. 

In a society where slavery is confined to those of a diff^erent race 
from that of the master, race, not condition, becomes the basis of 
social relations. All who are white are equals in such a community 
in a sense which is never true elsewhere; for every white man is free 
and may become the owner of slaves, and whatever classes may 
exist, they are purely temporary and based largely on merit. In 



88 Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

that community no white person is barred from ready entrance into 
any class, even the highest, when he has by merit demonstrated his 
right. No part of the country has had so many eminent citizens 
springing from the humblest walks of life, and no demonstrations of 
confidence and affection have been greater or more touching than 
those shown by these people to men of humblest birth. This is not 
generally believed or understood; but it is true, and to an extent 
that aids us to understand how the slaveholding white population 
always had as their friends and allies the non-slaveholding white 
population of those states. 

The profits in such farming as was common in the border 
states was not large in ready money, after the abundant and some- 
what wasteful support of the family and farm had been taken out of 
the year's products, and accumulated capital was never great. This 
stood in the way of important works of any kind, either in the shape 
of great public buildings, universities, railroads, or other enterprises. 
It also prevented marked inequahties in the pecuniary conditions of 
men. There were none very rich, few very poor, the vast mass 
being in comfortable circumstances. It also opened but few avenues 
for profit and distinction to the young men, and the learned pro- 
fessions and such business as was necessary in such a simple com- 
munity were the only vocations open to those who desired to leave 
the farm. The best talent, therefore, went into these professions 
or remained in the pursuit of agriculture. Skilful lawyers and 
doctors, eloquent preachers, and trained statesmen were naturally 
produced in a community where these were the most profitable and 
influential vocations. The leisurely life in such a community gave 
opportunity for culture, for wide reading, and, perhaps, for the 
development of the subtleties of politics and philosophy, rather 
than for the practical pursuit of life; and so this section produced 
statesmen of unsurpassed attainments in the science of politics and 
in the realm of constitutional and international history. 

As cities are the growth of commerce and manufactures, there 
could not be great cities in this section; but as wealth and leisure 
were considerable, and as the cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco crops 
had to be exported and sold where they were not raised, commercial 
cities of fair size necessarily grew up. These cities, however, had 
no other business than that incident to these general products, and 
necessarily revealed this in the type of life which such pursuits 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 89 

produced. Quiet, easy, leisurely, comfortable, intelligent, honest, 
agreeable, beautiful — such are the words that would a priori be apt 
to describe cities in such a climate and arising from such causes, 
and Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington, Richmond, Nashville, 
Louisville come within the scope m which such terms may be fairly 
used. The smoke of industries, the bustle and confusion of a very 
active commerce, the rush and hurry of excited men, the cruel panics 
of sudden fluctuations in markets, the appearance of the new rich 
and the disappearance of well-known houses going down in a storm, 
must fail to mark the life of such cities, and the distinction in char- 
acter between New York and Charleston, for instance, testifies 
decisively to the great difference in the conditions to which these 
cities have been exposed. 

The difference in the leading products of the southern colonies 
gave rise to certain differences in their life conditions, of which it is 
well to speak. Tobacco being the staple of Virginia, the modes of 
agriculture conformed to. its requirements, and social life was 
affected by its demands. In North Carolina, while tobacco was 
grown, the broad forests of yellow pine led to quite a different in- 
dustry, that of the production of lumber, tar, and turpentine, and 
the great plantation was less in evidence, many of the people being 
engaged in woodland pursuits. In South Carolina rice and indigo 
formed the staple products, the former culture beginning in 1693, 
when the governor of that colony received a small bag of rice from 
the captain of a vessel from Madagascar. He planted it as an 
experiment, and it grew so luxuriantly that its general culture at 
once began. Indigo was similarly tried as an experiment in 1741, 
and with equally favorable results. It was much later when the 
culture of cotton threw both these products into the shade. 

The culture of rice and indigo invaded Georgia soon after its 
settlement, and the silk industry was also introduced there, and for 
a time seemed promising. It was kept up until after the Revolution, 
but never proved very profitable. The trade in lumber was also 
brisk. In Louisiana, an important section of the present South, 
though then a province of Spanish America, the cultivation of the 
sugar-cane began about 1750. It did not become important, 
however, until after 1800. As for the culture of cotton, now of such 
overmastering importance in southern agriculture, very little of it 
was raised until after the invention of the cotton-gin. Not a pound 
of cotton was sent abroad before 1790. 



90 Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

The effect on the southern populations of these differences in 
products was added to by the influence of variation in cHmate, 
which ranged from the temperate chme of Maryland and Virginia 
to the semi-tropic warmth of the lands bordering on the gulf. In 
addition there were the influences of difference of race. The popu- 
lation of the southern colonies included, in addition to the English, 
the Germans who settled thickly in Georgia and the Carolinas; 
the Huguenots, who gave a certain agreeable flavor to the character 
of the Carolinas; the sturdy and combative Scotch-Irish, who made 
their character felt in the Valley of Virginia and in large sections of 
North Carolina; the Pennsylvania "Dutch," who followed the 
range of limestone, with its rich soil, down through Virginia and 
North Carolina and into Tennessee. Each of these became, in its 
way, as marked a characteristic of the people as the Cavaliers who 
had settled the fertile coastal region. Yet these distinctions of race 
gradually disappeared as amalgamation proceeded, the people of the 
South growing more and more ahke as time went on, until they came 
to be the most homogeneous in character of the population of any 
part of the country. 

The varied conditions as regarded slavery may be spoken of 
here, as having a molding influence over the industrial conditions 
and social relations of different sections. The profitable growth of 
rice and indigo in the low coast lands of the far south increased the 
demand for African slaves, who alone could with safety labor in that 
climate. The subsequent invention of the cotton-gin added many- 
fold to the value of slave labor, and spread the institution rapidly 
over the entire section of the South in which the climate permitted 
cotton to be profitably grown; so that the growth and development 
of the colonies which settled in Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina 
and Georgia were accompanied by an increase both in the number 
and value of slaves. 

A precisely opposite development was going on in that section of 
the country where agriculture was purely the husbandry of farm 
products and the growth of live stock. In such labors the slave was 
not of any advantage. He was never equal as a laborer to his white 
competitor, nor did he stand the climate of those states so well; 
but where the necessity was to have disciplined labor in gangs, under 
a hot sun, and when to that was added the danger of malarial fevers 
from swamp lands, his labor became much more valuable. These 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 



91 



differences in climate and product, and this marked diversity of labor, 
naturally produced entirely different industries and caused many 
dissimilarities in the development of the social civilization and of the 
customs of the people. It is quite difficult for one who was not 
either raised, or did not for a long period live, in one of the southern 
states to appreciate how the institution of slavery was interwoven 
with all its civilization, its customs^ its labors, its profits, and its 



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PART OF THE SOWELL GARDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA 

This famous garden, in spite of the sandy soil, compares favorably with some of the best in England. 

difficulties. All social problems, as well as all social customs, 
became modified by this institution and by the products to which its 
use required the people to devote their entire attention and capital. 
Only a superficial observer would fail to notice the very great 
difference between the institution of slavery in the farming states and 
in the planting states of the South. In Maryland, Virginia, Ken- 



92 Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

tucky, the mountainous and grass sections of Tennessee, the moun- 
tainous and grass sections of North Carolina and Georgia, and the 
State of Missouri, slavery was solely a domestic institution. Com- 
paratively few slaves were owned by the richest men. They lived 
in daily association with the famihes of their owners. The white 
children of the master and the colored children of the slave played 
together upon terms of semi-equality until the school age was 
reached, and the kindliness thus produced, and the association inci- 
dental to such a life, continued through the lives of both. 

In the planting states large gangs of negroes lived in what were 
called "quarters" under the control and supervision of an overseer, 
and with scarcely any association with the families of the masters at 
the main house; with the exception, however, of the domestic slaves, 
who performed the ordinary services of the household, between 
whom and the field hands was a gap almost as great as between the 
families of the master and the domestic slave. This difference had 
results which were far reaching and not always clearly understood. 

There were also differences in race between the slaves of the 
border slave states and the majority of the slaves of the cotton and 
sugar states. Very few, if any, slaves were in those border states 
who were imported to America after the Revolutionary War; while 
the great bulk of the cotton states' slaves were imported after the 
treaty of peace in which was recognized the independence of the 
United Colonies; these were ethnologically of a different type from 
those which had been brought over and sold through Virginia and 
Maryland and had been sent from Virginia and Maryland to the 
interior states; and this ethnological difference is easily observable 
to-day. 

While the original settlements on the southern coast were 
made early in the seventeenth century, they grew quite slowly, and 
when the Revolutionary War came it was only the thin fringe along 
the Atlantic Coast and east of the Blue Ridge which was populated, 
with the exception of some of the valleys which ran in between the 
Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies. Beyond the Alleghanies there 
were no settlements at all. The climate and the soil tempted the 
people to agricultural pursuits; and the institution of slavery is 
necessarily agricultural. The unoccupied lands were so large in 
extent, and so fertile in quality that there was no temptation to put 
labor or capital into any other pursuit; and the profits of farming and 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 93 

planting with slave labor were so great that the returns induced 
every one to take all possible risks in making new investments. 

The life of a Virginia planter, or of the Kentucky or the Ten- 
nessee farmer of later days was, while in many respects a pleasant 
and easy life, one of labor. It was free from the ordinary risks of 
the manufacturer and merchant. Bankruptcy was very rare; great 
wealth equally rare; but moderate, comfortable, and abundant live- 
lihood was common. This produced a corresponding life, which 
was simple in its manners, unostentatious in its customs, not very 
careful in its economies; frank, virtuous, and honest in its relations 
to neighbors and other persons, and full of a generosity founded 
rather on free living than systematic charity. The life was almost 
entirely a family life as contradistinguished from a community life. 
Families resided on their own farms, and, to a certain degree, 
isolated from their neighbors, and from this grew a certain intensity 
of family affection and of family pride which gave to the members 
of the family the aid and defense of all the clan, which resembled the 
Scotch clannishness. Large enterprises requiring cooperative effort 
were nearly impossible. Whatever one man or family could do 
was always excellently well done; but those efforts which required 
cooperative action were apt to fall through. Such a life is apt to 
produce marked individuality — each person has been developed so 
as to intensify his individual qualities; and yet, as in all communities, 
the influences upon each being somewhat similar, the peculiarities 
of all its members came to resemble those of all the other members. 

Shall not we reproduce here a brilliant picture of the idyllic 
scenes amid which these planters and farmers passed their lives, as 
given in Dr. Bagby's "Old Virginia Gentleman.'"' The vision of 
beauty and plenty presented us is certainly a highly alluring one: 

"A scene not of enchantment, though contact made it often seem 
so, met the eye. Wide, very wide, fields of waving grain, billowy 
seas of green or gold, as the season chanced to be, over which the 
scudding shadows chased and played, gladdened the heart with 
wealth far spread. Upon lowlands level as the floor the plumed and 
tasseled corn stood tall and dense, rank behind rank in military 
alignment, a serried army lush and strong. The rich, dark soil of 
the gently swelling knolls (it was not always rich) could scarcely 
be seen under the broad-lapping leaves of the mottled tobacco. The 
hills were carpeted with clover. Beneath the tree-clumps fat cattle 



94 Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

chewed the cud, or peaceful sheep reposed, grateful for the shade. 
In the midst of this plenty, half hidden in foliage, over which the 
graceful shafts of the Lombardy poplar towered, with its bounteous 
garden, and its orchards heavy with fruit near at hand, peered the 
old mansion, white, or dusky red, or mellow gray by the storm and 
shine of years. 

"Seen by the tired horseman halting at the woodland's edge, 
this picture, steeped in the intense quivering, summer moonlight, 
filled the soul with unspeakable emotions of beauty, tenderness, 
peace, home. 

' How calm could we rest 
In that bosom of shade, with the friends we love best! ' 

"Sorrows and care were there — where do they not penetrate } 
But, O dear God, one day in those sweet tranquil homes outweighed 
a fevered lifetime in the gayest cities of the globe. Tell me noth- 
ing; I undervalue naught that man's heart delights in. I dearly 
love operas and great pageants; but I do know, as I know nothing 
else, that the first years of human life, and the last, yea, if it be possi- 
ble, all the years should be passed in the country. The towns may 
do for a day, a week, a month at most ; but Nature, Mother Nature, 
pure and clean, is for all time; yes for eternity itself." 

The record of life in colonial times yields us one or two interest- 
ing stories, worth telling aHke for themselves and for the light they 
throw upon the character of the people and the primitive nature of 
the conditions surrounding them. The first of these has to do with 
Alexander Spotswood, a soldier who had fought under Marlborough 
at Blenheim, and was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1710. 
He was a young man at that time, and full of energy and the spirit of 
progress; a very difi^erent character from his tyrannical predecessor. 
Sir William Berkeley. He built a stately mansion for himself and 
future governors and erected at Williamsburg an oddly shaped powder 
magazine, which still stands. The Indians left in the colony were 
now few in number, and with the desire to benefit them as well as he 
was able the governor gave them permission to have their boys 
educated free of expense at the William and Mary College, then 
recently founded at Williamsburg. 

The next thing done by the energetic governor was to attempt 
the development of a new interest in the colonies, that of iron manu- 
facture. Iron ore was present in abundance and he had furnaces 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 



95 



built which proved very successful. These preceded the earhest 
iron furnaces in Pennsylvania, and won for Spotswood the com- 
plimentary title of the "Tubal-Cain of Virginia." 

Another good piece of work for which we must give Governor 
Spotswood credit was the suppression of one ot the most daring and 
merciless pirates of the coast, the notorious Blackbeard, a leading 
spirit in the horde of buccaneers who then made commerce a very 
risky pursuit. For a time Spotswood bore with the depredations of 
this knight of the black flag, but he finally grew tired of them, and 
sent out an armed vessel with orders to find Blackbeard and bring 
him in, dead or aHve. The vessel returned in due time with Biack- 




OLD SPANISH HOUSE ON BOURBON STREET, NEW ORLEANS 

beard's head as a figure piece on the bowsprit, a signal of success 
which added immensely to the popularity of the energetic governor. 

The special incident in Spotswood's life with which we are here 
concerned was his celebrated excursion to the summit of the Blue 
Ridge Mountains, known in local history as the adventure of the 
"Knights of the Golden Horseshoe." There is something so fresh 
and romantic about this story as to make it well worth the telHng. 

Virginia, at that time, was embraced between the mountains 
and the sea. The planters had settled down in the fertile tide-water 
region, forming their plantations on the shores of the Chesapeake or 



96 Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

the banks of navigable streams, convenience in shipping tobacco 
being as important to them as facihty in growing it. Very little w^as 
known about the great country that lay beyond the mountains. 
"Orange County" they called this mysterious section, but in their 
crude geography this county extended to the Pacific Ocean, whose 
distance away nobody knew. The worthy tide-water planters had 
been regaled with rumors in abundance. Orange County they were 
told was a land of lofty mountains and fertile valleys, of broad forests 
and swift streams. Many thought that the Mississippi itselt rose in 
the Blue Ridge Mountains. Nothing was known beyond the stories 
told by adventurous hunters, but these were of a character to fill 
those who heard them with a desire to explore that wonderful land. 

Among these was Governor Spotswood. A man of romantic 
spirit and adventurous disposition, he grew eager to see for himself 
this realm of infinite possibilities. Not content, as many might 
have been, to send an exploring party, he proposed to make a grand 
holiday excursion to the mountains, to be headed by himself and 
made up of the youth and chivalry of the "Old Dominion. " 

Word of the projected expedition w^as sent to the planters, far 
and near, with the statement that the governor proposed to head it 
in person, and would welcome all who wished to join the enterprise. 
As may well be imagined there was no lack of volunteers. To the 
young Virginians, accustomed to horseback riding and hunting 
excursions, such a project was full of promise of delightful adventure. 
And on the appointed day, in August, 1714 a goodly number 
assembled at Williamsburg, well appointed for the long ride they had 
in view. 

They were all well mounted; after them came pack-mules in 
charge of servants and laden with provisions for the journey; only one 
detail had been forgotten, the necessity of shoeing the horses. At 
that time it was the fashion to ride horses "barefooted," iron for 
shoes being scarce and costly and the soft roadways of lower Vir- 
ginia rendering it unnecessary. But rocky mountain paths lay 
before the present travelers, paths likely to make havoc of bare 
hoofs, and it became necessary to shoe the horses. This fact is of 
interest, as from it the title of the expedition arose. 

Bright, no doubt, was the morning when this gallant cavalcade 
rode out of Williamsburg, amid the waving of handkerchiefs and 
shouts of friendly cheer. The sun would be niggardly of his favors 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 97 

that refused to shine on so chivalrous a troop. In the best of high 
spirits they rode gaily on, with the governor at their head, and the 
long train of pack mules in the rear. As they passed through the land 
others joined them at intervals, and it v^as a goodly company that 
at length rode into a settlement called Germanna, on the Rapidan 
River, Here were the recently established iron furnaces, worked 
by Germans, and near by was the summer residence of the governor, 
built by him to escape the sultriness of the lower country. At 
Germanna the party took their first rest, and from this point 
they rode on into a country that grew stranger to them with every 
mile's advance. The story of their ride is well told by John Eston 
Cooke, in his juvenile "Stories of the Old Dominion," and we 
extract from his pages the following picturesque description : 

" Every one seemed to enjoy himself. The season of the year 
was dehghtful, for August in Virginia is a month when the air 
is pleasant, and the blue sky is filled with white clouds, drifting on 
before the wind Hke ships with all sails set- The woods were in full 
leaf; the streams were laughing, and the birds singing; and in the 
midst of all these beautiful sights and sounds the horsemen wound 
their way along, laughing and talking with each other. In the 
middle of the day they would stop in some green glade of the woods, 
to rest and pasture their horses; and then the baskets on the pack- 
mules would be unstrapped by the servants, the contents spread on 
the grass, and everybody would gather around and eat their dinner 
with an appetite sharpened by their long ride since morning. 

"Frequently, while on the march, some one of the party would 
ride into the woods, and the rest would lose sight of him. But 
soon they would hear him fire his gun, and he would come back 
holding in his hand a fat pheasant or some other game, which he 
would hand to the servants for supper. At night, the party would 
halt in some favorable spot, and hobble their horses by tying their 
legs together with ropes, after which they would turn them loose to 
graze, certain that the hobbles would prevent them from wandering 
off too far. Then supper would be spread on the grass, everybody 
would sup heartily, and, wrapping their cloaks around them, Spots- 
wood and his friends would stretch themselves on the ground, and 
sleep as soundly and sweetly as if they were at home in their beds. 

"At last they reached the Blue Ridge Mountains, and toiled on 
up the steep sides, covered with forest trees, to the top. It is not 



qS Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

known precisely where they ascended the mountains, but it is 
supposed that the spot is near what is called Rockfish Gap, where 
the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad now pass through. Some 
persons assert that the party went on and crossed the Alleghany 
Mountains also; but there is no proof of this, and no reason to 
believe it, as they never said they crossed two ranges of mountains, 
and wouM not have forgotten the Blue Ridge, which they reached 
first. From the summit which they now stood upon, they saw 
beneath them a wild and lovely landscape, through which wound 
the Shenandoah — whose name signifies in the English language, 
'The Daughter of the Stars.' To the right and left the Blue Ridge 
extended far out of sight, clothed with oaks, pines, and other forest 
trees; while in front, across the valley, was seen the long blue line of 
the AUeghanies, like a wave of the ocean. 

"The sight before them must have filled Spotswood and 
his friends with delight, and they carved their names on the 
rocks, to mark the spot to which they had ascended. There were 
two peaks of the mountain near, and one of these was named 
'Mount George' in honor of the King of England, and the other 
'Mount Alexander,' in honor of Spotswood. The party then drank 
the king's health, and rode down the western part of the mountain 
into the Shenandoah Valley. 

"They did not meet with any romantic incidents, fights with 
Indians or bears, or anything of that sort. The wild animals seen 
were chiefly deer; or a herd of huge elks, such as then lived in the 
region, may have galloped off into the thick woods as the hoofs of the 
horses clattered on the rocky paths. No adventures befel them in 
the valley; and after enjoying a sight of its fertile lands, the party 
recrossed the Blue Ridge, entered the low country, and going joyously 
on their way as before, reached their houses on tidewater. 

"This little expedition pleased every one who took part in it, 
and the discovery of so fine a country was very important. Spots- 
wood therefore resolved to commemorate his long ride, by estab- 
lishing what is called an Order of Knighthood. 

"You probably know what this means. Knights, in the former 
times, were brave men who went about seeking adventures, and 
they belonged to various 'orders,' which were regarded with great 
respect. Governor Spotswood therefore determined to form a 
Virginia Order of Knighthood; but he must have been puzzled at 



1 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days 



first to find a name for it. At last, however, he decided what this 
name should be. He remembered the shoeing of the horses at 
Williamsburg, before the party set out, and thought the best 
name for them would be 'Sir Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.' 
He therefore fixed upon that title, and sent to England for a number 
of small golden horseshoes, one of which he presented to each of 
his companions. There was a motto in Latin cut upon them — 
'Stc ^urat transcendere montes^ signifying, ' Thus we swear to cross 
the mountains,' and one of them set with garnets, a species of 
jewel, is still to be seen, it is said, somewhere in Virginia. " 

The story just given has been told in a juvenile way, and prop- 
erly so, as it belongs 
to the boyhood of 
Virginia, and all 
who took part in it, 
from the governor 
downward, were 
men of young blood 
and inspired with 
the spirit of youth- 
ful romance and 
love of adventure. 
It is not the only 
story we have to tell 
of Virginian boy- 
hood and adventure. Thirty-four years afterward — in 1748 — two 
youthful cavaliers rode into the beautiful valley which Spotswood 
had discovered, as gay of heart as any of his followers, though 
their errand was one of work, not one of play. 

One of these, and the leader of the expedition, was a boy of 
sixteen, a tall, alert, manly young fellow, in the very heyday of 
youthful life. Yet there was a look of sober resolution in his face 
which showed that he had already begun to take the burden of life 
seriously. His companion was a young man of twenty-two. They 
took with them the implements of the surveyor's art, for their 
errand was to survey a part of that fertile region upon which Spots- 
wood and his friends had looked down with wonder and delight 
from the summit of the Blue Ridge. 

Crossing the mountains at the pass now known as Ashby's Gap, 




CHAISE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 



1. 1IF C. 



loo Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

the young surveyors, light of heart as the springtide air through 
which they rode, soon reached and forded the beautiful Shenandoah, 
and journeyed down its bank till they reached a true "lodge in the 
wilderness." This was a house with broad stone gables and sloping 
roof, that came far down over a long porch in front. On the 
roof peaks stood two belfries, their purpose being to warn the neigh- 
boring settlers in case of danger from the Indians. Such was 
Greenway Lodge, in which then resided the manager of Lord 
Fairfax, to whom belonged all the surrounding region as far north as 
the Potomac. It had fallen to him through a grant from the king 
to his grandfather. Lord Culpeper, one time Governor of Virginia. 

Shall we introduce the two travelers ^ The younger was 
named George Washington. He was the son of a planter on the 
Potomac, a manly lad to whom Lord Fairfax had taken a warm fancy, 
and had now commissioned to explore and survey his wild lands 
beyond the mountains. • With him came George William Fairfax, a 
cousin of the proprietor. That the excursion was a delightful one 
to the young surveyors we may feel assured. If was early spring, 
the fresh green leaves were just opening on the trees, everything 
was invested with nature's budding charm, and no doubt they 
enjoyed it to the uttermost. Since Spotswood's time many settlers 
had entered the valley, mainly of the hardy Scotch-Irish stock, born 
frontiersmen. The youthful adventurers as they went on with 
their labors, now found shelter in cabins of some of these settlers, 
now slept in the open, beside a woodland fire — perhaps finding 
this the more enjoyable of the two. 

Working diligently, the boyish pioneers surveyed the lands 
along the Shenandoah as far north as the Potomac, and followed 
this to the place now called Berkeley Springs — famous for its mineral 
waters, and a favorite summer resort of Washington in his later 
life. It was early summer when they returned and reported to the 
old lord. They had done their work so fully to his satisfaction, 
that he paid them well and praised them heartily in the bargain. 
In fact he was so pleased to learn the value of his wild lands, and 
especially of the splendid hunting they afforded, that he removed to 
Greenway Lodge, spending there the remainder of his life. In 
1 78 1 there came to him the news of the surrender of Lord Corn- 
wallis, and the grand triumph of his one-time boy surveyor. A 



Manor Life in Old Colony Days loi 

rigid royalist, the old lord heard the unwelcome news with a groan 
of dismay, and said in a broken-hearted tone to his servant, "Take 
me to bed, Joe; it is time for me to die." And die he did. 

Thus ends a tale of life, manners and conditions in Virginia in 
early times, one of interest in itself, and of especial interest from 
the fact that it has to do with the boyhood life of the greatest man 
our country has ever known, the hero whose story is the most 
brilliant jewel in the Southland's crown. It was not the whole of 
Washington's life of adventure in the wilderness, but only its spring- 
tide beginning. It was followed by a winter in the wilds which was 
the reverse of romantic and delightful. The story of this is one well 
known to all readers of history, and we shall deal with it here 
with great brevity. 

Five years after his pioneer experience as a surveyor, Wash- 
ington, then just twenty-one, was chosen by Governor Dinwiddie 
of Virginia for a task needing knowledge of life in the wilderness, 
great powers of endurance, and a judgment and skill in diplomacy 
scarcely to be looked for in a man so young. This was to visit the 
forts which the French had built on French Creek and the Alleghany 
River, to warn them that they were intruding on British soil, and 
bid them to keep within their own domains. It involved, in going 
and returning, a journey of over a thousand miles through a 
country on which the white man's foot had scarcely trodden, and this 
in the depth of winter. A youth of twenty-one seemed very ill 
fitted for such a task, but we must give the worthy governor the full 
credit of knowing what he was about, for it is doubtful if there 
was another man in America who could have done the work set 
for him better than it was done by young Washington. 

We do not propose to follow Washington through all the adven- 
tures of his long and arduous journey. It must suffice to say that 
he and his small party traversed the mountain passes, reached 
the present site of Pittsburgh and had an interesting interview with 
the principal Indian chief of that region, the "Half King," whom 
he sought to win over to the English cause. He found the wily 
old savage not ready to be beguiled into rash promises. 

How Washington reached the French forts, and how he cir- 
cumvented the wiles of the shrewd French commanders, all this 
is a matter of history. The dangers and hardships of his journey 
came on the return. French Creek, which the party sought to 



102 Manor Life in Old Colony Days 

navigate in canoes, was so full of broken ice, and ran so swiftly, 
that the canoes had to be abandoned, and Washington and his 
pioneer companion. Gist, set out on foot through the snow-paved 
forest, leaving the remainder of the party to make their way home 
with the nearly exhausted pack-horses. 

The journey was full of adventure and danger. A treacherous 
Indian, whom they had taken for guide, attempted to shoot Wash- 
ington, and almost succeeded. Then came a day and a night of 
continuous tramping through the forest to escape their savage 
enemies. Finally reaching the Alleghany, they found it a swirl of 
floating ice, hurled onward by the swift current. In seeking to 
cross it on a raft, Washington fell into the icy current, and saved 
his life with difficulty; a night was passed on a frozen island, in 
which Gist had his hands and feet badly frosted; and the next day they 
crossed on a soHd ice bridge to the southern shore. Sixteen days 
later Washington rode into Wilhamsburg, bearing the answer of 
the French commandant of Fort Le Boeuf to Governor Dinwiddle. 
Thus ended one of the most interesting journeys in the wilderness 
in the history of our country, far surpassing in extent and peril the 
former expedition of Governor Spotswood, and of special impor- 
tance from the fact that George Washington was its hero. Wash- 
ington had selected a location for a fort at the forks of the Ohio, 
and here an attempt was made in the next spring to build one, but the 
French drove out the English workmen and built the fort themselves. 
It won a place in history as Fort Duquesne. It was about this 
fort that Washington's career centered in the war that followed. 
He was marching toward it when his first military exploit took 
place. Nearby was the scene of Braddock's terrible defeat, in 
which Washington alone won credit on the English side. For 
several years afterward Washington was engaged in repressing 
the Indian outrages that followed this defeat. Finally, in the later 
years of the war, it was he that captured Fort Duquesne, and 
brought the conflict in that region to an end. Thus closed the 
first chapter in George Washington's great career. 



CHAPTER V. 

HOW THE SOUTH PLANTED 
THE SEEDS OF INDEPENDENCE 

The tea at Annapolis and Charleston — The North Carolina regulators — ^The Meck- 
lenburg Declaration — Patrick Henry's defiance to the king — Henry's great 
speech for liberty or death — The study of oratory and government in the South 
— Some famous orators — South Carolina and the Stamp Act Congress — ^The Con- 
tinental Congress — Effect of Lexington in the South — Virginia's Declaration of 
Rights — Richard Henry Lee's resolutions — Jefferson writes the Declaration — 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton. 

THE dramatic character of the events in New England at the 
dawn of the Revolution have had the effect of shadowing 
events of equal significance in other sections of the country. 
The throwing overboard of the tea, the Boston massacre, Paul 
Revere's ride, and the stirring day at Lexington and Concord, stand 
out prominently like the scenes in a vivid drama, and in reading 
history one is apt to look upon Boston as the pivotal point in Amer- 
ican independence. 

But to take this view would be to do serious injustice to the 
patriots of the other sections of the country, whose spirit of resistance 
to the tyranny of England was fully as earnest and outspoken as that 
of Boston, though they had not a garrison of British soldiers to deal 
with like the Bostonians. The people of Maryland, for instance, 
were as resolute against the landing of tea on their shores as were 
those of Massachusetts. A cargo of tea was sent to Annapolis, the 
ship entering the harbor under full sail, its master in hopeful expecta- 
tion of disposing of his freight to the tea-loving citizens. But he 
found the men and women of Annapolis fully as resolute not to 
accept British tea as those of Boston. The people gathered in 
threatening groups in the streets and on the wharves, vigorously 

103 



104 Seeds of Independence Planted 

declaring that not a leaf of the obnoxious plant should be brought 
ashore, and commanding the owner, who was a merchant of Annapo- 
hs, to take his tea back to England. 

This he refused to do, and a party of t.he citizens took possession 
of the ship and its cargo. The affair ended in a conflagration. 
A torch was placed in the hands of the owner and he was forced to set 
fire to his own vessel. As the chronicler of the event tells us: "The 
sails were set, the colors displayed, and the vessel burned amidst 
the acclamations of the multitude." 

There is certainly no great difference in character between 
the method of dealing with the tea at Annapohs and at Boston, 
but as the former was a private venture the incident failed to gain 
historical prominence. At Charleston, where a cargo was also 
sent, the people, though no less resolute against its use, permitted the 
tea to be landed. But no one would undertake its sale, no one 
would buy it, and the authorities purposely had it stored away 
in damp cellars. There it remained, as neither man or woman 
was ready to buy a leaf or drink a cup of the taxed tea. In the end 
the tea rotted away, contemned if not forgotten, in its underground 
receptacles. 

In advance of this business of the tea, an event of a more violent 
character had taken place in North Carolina, ending in what has 
been called, "the first battle in our war for Independence." The 
hardy and resolute North Carolinians, who had through their whole 
history been determined not to submit to oppression, found them- 
selves in 1 77 1 under the rule of a governor as violent and tyrannical 
in his way as the one who had stirred up the Bacon rebellion in 
Virginia. A bitter royalist, passionate in temper and despotic in 
disposition. Governor Tryon, sought to rule the people with a rod of 
iron, his legislation growing so unjust and oppressive, and the 
illegal taxation so severe, that the spirit of rebellion spread wide and 
fast. Bands caUing themselves Regulators, pledged to resist the 
lawless acts of the governor, were formed, and soon the colony was 
in a state of ferment and anarchy. 

The defiance of his authority by the rebellious bands stirred the 
governor to a fury. A bolder man than Berkeley of old, he gathered 
a force of several hundred militia, armed with a number of pieces 
of artillery, and set out to punish the defiers of his authority. Rein- 



Seeds of Independence Planted 105 

forcements came to him on the way, though a party that was 
bringing him ammunition was routed by the Regulators and their 
powder taken from them. 

Marching to Alamance Creek, where the Regulators were 
encamped, Tryon faced the rebels against his authority. He had 
now about a thousand men. The Regulators were somewhat more 
numerous but most of them were unarmed. In the fight that 
followed nine of the militia and twenty of the citizens who were in 
arms for an honest administration were killed and the unarmed 
Regulators fled. Tryon was triumphant and the rebels against 
his rule were dispersed. Such was the first armed outbreak in the 
struggle for American liberty. Tryon was as brutal in his revenge 
as Berkeley before him, hanging a considerable number of the rebels. 
Those who escaped could not take refuge in Virginia or in South 
Carohna, whose governors had been notified not to give them 
shelter. But the mountain country back was beyond the jurisdiction 
of royal governors, and many of them crossed into the wilderness of 
East Tennessee, where they helped to settle a state that knew no 
king. 

Four years afterward the people of North Carolina showed their 
hatred of tyranny again, in a new form. From them came the first 
outspokeh declaration of independence — a year before Congress 
acted upon Jefferson's Declaration. On May 31, 1775, a com- 
mittee of citizens of Mecklenburg county met and adopted a series 
of resolutions which were in open defiance of the authority of the 
king and parliament, and declared that "whoever shall hereafter 
receive a commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any 
such commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy 
to his country." A form of these resolutions, indeed, has been 
long extant which uses almost the identical words employed by 
Jefferson in his famous defiance of England; but as it has been 
declared that this is of later origin and is not authentic, we pass it 
by here. 

But we can go back to a date ten years earlier than the Mecklen- 
burg Resolutions, to a period when the question of independence 
from England had never been raised and the loyalty of the colonists 
to the king was only beginning to be disturbed, to find the South 
putting herself on record in the most impassioned and dramatic 
utterance in American history. It was the famous Patrick Henry, 



io6 



Seeds of Independence Planted 



America's first great orator, who spoke these words, that ran like 
an electric flash from end to end of the country, and still seem to 
vibrate in our ears. 

A young man at that time, a man whose eany nfe had been 
passed in poverty and obscurity, with no further warrant for mem- 
bership in the 
ari s t o c r a tic 
House of Bur- 
gesses of Vir- 
ginia than a 
local reputation 
for oratory, the 
older and more 
conserva t i ve 
members of 
that body 
looked with 
strong disap- 
proval on this 
new member 
when he rose 
to offer a body 
of resolutions 
condemning the 
famous Stamp 
Act. They had 
been chary of 
deahng with 
this firebrand, 
not knowing to 
what the dis- 
cussion of it 
might lead, and 
the re were 
marked signs 
of uneasiness in 

the House when the new member rose and boldly read his plain- 
speaking resolutions. 

But when he supported these in a speech such as those old 




PATRICK HENRY 

Whose great speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses resulted in the first open 
defiance of England. 



Seeds of Independence Planted 107 

walls have never before vibrated to, a passionate, energetic, outburst 
of indignation against and defiance of the acts of the Parliament 
and the crown, the souls of the members were stirred to their depths. 
The burning words of this daring young orator fairly lifted them to 
their feet, and swept away the doubts and fears of many of his 
hearers. Unfortunately Henry's great speech has not been preserved. 
Nothing remains of it but the thunderbolt of defiance with which it 
terminated. 

In a passionate outburst the orator exclaimed: "Caesar had 
his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third" — 
Here his words were drowned in an uproar of cries of "Treason!" 
which came from all parts of the House. The orator paused until 
silence was restored, cast a look of defiance over the excited assem- 
bly, and then concluded in a lower tone, — "may profit by their 
example. If this be treason, make the most of it. " 

His resolutions passed the House, and the first open defiance of 
the English king was sustained by the Virginia House of Burgesses. 
In the years that followed Patrick Henry stood in the forefront 
of the movement toward independence. Alexander H. Everett 
says that, "During the period between this date and the Revolution 
Mr. Henry was constantly in advance of the most ardent patriots. 
He suggested and carried into effect, by his immediate personal 
influence, measures that were opposed as premature and violent 
by all the other eminent supporters of the cause of liberty." 

When the first Continental Congress was called into existence 
in 1774, Henry was one of its most patriotic members. But the first 
of his speeches of which we have a record was that which he delivered 
in the Virginia Convention, at Richmond, in March, 1775, roused to 
it by a resolution, "that the colony be immediately put in a state of 
defense. " This famous address ranks among the ablest in the 
world's records of oratory. Its brevity adapts it to the space at our 
command, and we give it as the choicest example of Revolutionary 
oratory. Its concluding words, "Liberty or death," were used as 
a motto on the earliest flags used in the Revolution, and helped to 
inspire the patriots in the outset of their struggle for independence. 
"Mr. President: 

"No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as 
well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just ad- 
dressed the House. But different men often see the same subject 



io8 Seeds of Independence Planted 

in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought 
disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do opinions of a 
character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments 
freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The 
question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. 
For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of 
freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the sub- 
ject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that 
we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfil the great responsibility 
which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my 
opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should con- 
sider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and of an act of 
disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all 
earthly kings. 

" Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of 
hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen 
to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this 
the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for 
liberty .? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who, having 
eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly 
^''concern their temporal salvation .? For my part, whatever anguish 
of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know 
the worst, and to provide for it. 

"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is 
the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future 
but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there 
has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years 
to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to 
solace themselves and the House ^ Is it that insidious smile with 
which our petition has been lately received ? Trust it not, sir; it 
will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed 
with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our 
petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our 
waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a 
work of love and reconciliation ^ Have we shown ourselves so 
unwiUing to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back 
our love .? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the imple- 
ments of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings 
resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its 




^j.rfr^'^-^. 




AN OLD MANOR HOUSE. 
"Hampton," on the eastern shore of Maryland, is an excellent example 
of the colonial mansion in which our forefathers dispensed the hos- 
pitality for which they were famous. The great planters lived like lords 
of the country, keeping stables of fine horses and packs of hunting dogs, 
riding and hunting l)eing the favorite pastimes. 



Seeds of Independence Planted 109 

purpose be not to force us to submission ? Can gentlemen assign 
any other possible motive for it ? Has Great Britain any enemy, 
in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies 
and armies ? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they 
can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet 
upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long 
forging. And what have we to oppose to them ? Shall we try 
argument .? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. 
Have we anything new to offer upon the subject ^ Nothing. We 
have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it 
has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble suppli- 
cation .? What terms shall we find which have not been already 
exhausted ^ Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. 
Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm 
which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remon- 
strated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before 
the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyran- 
nical hands of the ministry and Parhament. Our petitions have 
been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence 
and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have 
been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, 
after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and recon- 
ciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be 
free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges 
for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely 
to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, 
and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the 
glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I 
repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of 
Hosts is all that is left us! 

"They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so 
formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger .? Will it 
be the next week, or the next year .? Will it be when we are totally 
disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house I 
Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we 
acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our 
backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our enemies 
shall have bound us hand and foot ? Sir, we are not weak, if we 
make the proper use of those means which the God of Nature hath 



no Seeds of Independence Planted 

placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy 
cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are 
invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Be- 
sides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God 
who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up 
friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong 
alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we 
have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too 
late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submis- 
sion and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be 
heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it 
come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! 

" It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, 
Peace, peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! 
The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the 
clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! 
Why stand we here idle ^ What is it that gentlemen wish .? What 
would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur- 
chased at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty 
God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, 
give me liberty, or give me death!" 

Patrick Henry was not alone among those whose voices were 
ardent for liberty. Virginia yields us others, prominent among 
them Thomas Nelson, who offered to the Convention of Virginia this 
resolution — the first of its kind — "That the delegates appointed to 
represent this colony in General Congress be instructed to propose 
to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and 
independent States, absolved from all allegiance to or dependence 
on the Crown or ParKament of Great Britain." In adopting this 
resolution Virginia broke ground as the pioneer among the colonies 
that declared for independence. 

It is, indeed, to the South that we must look for the fullest 
development in America of the science of government and the art of 
oratory. Government was a passion with the southerner. Trained, 
by the institution of slavery, to the management and control of men 
from his earliest years, he either dwelt in a governmental position on 
his estate at home, or, if he adopted a profession, was most likely 
to choose the law, from the opportunities it offered for effective 
oratory and political preferment. Emotional and impulsive by 



Seeds of Independence Planted m 

nature, he was highly susceptible to the influence of rhetoric, and 
diligently cultivated the art of public speaking for the influence it 
might give him in political assemblies. 

The South thus became celebrated for the eloquence of its 
young lawyers or politicians, and there are abundant traditions of 
the inspired eloquence of those who carried juries away on the stream 
of their words, or, in political contests, turned minorities into great 
majorities by the impetuous power of their speeches. It was as a 
young lawyer that Patrick Henry won the fame that carried him 
into the Virginia Assembly. The speech that he made in that 
celebrated trial in which he won the case of the people against the 
clergy, of justice and equity against the strict letter of the law, has 
not been preserved, but its reputation surrounds his name with an 
aureole, as one of the ablest of forensic orators. 

Shall we name some others of the leading Revolutionary orators 
of the South ? Virginia yields us the names of Edmund Pendleton, 
Richard Bland, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph and Richard 
Henry Lee among its skilled and accomplished political speakers. 
South Carolina was equally favored. Among its orators of note were 
John Rutledge, a rival of Patrick Henry in earnest and fiery elo- 
quence, and his brother Edward, as graceful in his oratory as John 
was impetuous. We may name also Christopher Gadsden, a fear- 
less republican, Henry Laurens, and David Ramsay, all men of fine 
powers. Massachusetts, the Northern home of oratory, has not 
an equal record to show, and in this field of expression the South 
may safely claim superiority in Revolutionary times to the Middle 
and Eastern States. 

Among all the colonies South Carolina was the first to raise its 
voice for Union — a fact to be remembered by those who accuse it 
of a native inclination to secession. James Otis, the "inspired mad- 
man" of Massachusetts, in 1765 called upon the colonies to unite 
and hold a Congress in protest against the Stamp Act, then just 
passed by Parliament. South Carolina, under the leadership of 
that unwavering lover of his country, Christopher Gadsden, was the 
first of the colonies to respond favorably to the proposition. In the 
Words used afterward by Gadsden, "Our State was the first, though 
at the extreme end, and one of the weakest as well internally as 
externally, to listen to the call of our Northern brethren in their dis- 
tress. Massachusetts sounded the trumpet, but to Carolina is it 



112 



Seeds of Independence Planted 



owing that it was attended to. Had it not been tor South Caro- 
Hna no Congress would then have happened. She was all ahve, and 
felt it at every pore." 

The Stamp Act Congress, with its Declaration of Rights and its 
petition to the king, was the first step toward that union which was 
to gain such force in the coming years. Nine years afterward, in 
September, 1774, the first Continental Congress met in solemn 
session at Philadelphia. It was a great, a vital occasion, for from 

that day to the 
present this 
country — w i t h 
only a brief in- 
t e r v a 1 — has 
never been with- 
out a Congress. 
Among the 
members were 
men of high re- 
pute, Virginia in 
particular shin- 
ing in the Con- 
gressional halls, 
with such dis- 
SILK WINDING tinguished men 

(Fac-simile of a picture in Edward Williams' "Virginia Truly as Washington, 

Valued." 1650.) Patrick Henry, 

and Richard Henry Lee to represent it. The Congress was in no 
mood to deal in platitudes. The wrongs of the colonies had been 
many and vital, and its members had no homage to pay to the English 
king or Parliament. Patrick Henry, in particular, who made the 
first speech in the Congress after its organization, did not hesitate to 
speak out his well-known sentiments, laying down in long array the 
many injuries which America had suffered at the hands ot England. 
British oppression, he said, had made one nation of the several 
colonies, and he no longer considered himself a Virginian, but an 
American. He moved that the colonies should be considered as a 
federation of independent states, with democratical representation, 
each state to have a voice in accordance with the numbers of its 
population. Carried away by his rhetoric, the voice of opposition 
sunk, and the resolution was adopted by the Congress. 




Seeds of Independence Planted 113 

Regarding the character of this Congress, in which the South 
was so ably represented, we cannot do better than offer the remarks 
of William Pitt, the great Lord Chatham. He declared that the 
delegates assembled at Philadelphia were second, in soHdity of 
reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conduct, to no human 
assembly of which history preserves the memory. This may seem 
to be an exaggeration, but none who read the doings and delibera- 
tions of that body of patriots will say that it was much overdrawn. 

This First Continental Congress was loyal in tone. It fully 
recognized the supremacy of the king, but demanded that the 
wrongs of the colonists should be redressed, and issued a declaration 
of rights which was very decided in its language. The old slogan of 
"No Taxation without Representation" was not raised. Represen- 
tation in the British Parliament was no longer asked for. It was not 
wanted. The colonies had passed that stage in their development, 
and in the future would make laws for themselves at home. 

Before the Second Continental Congress met, on May lo, 1775, 
a second and critical stage had been passed. The shots at Lexing- 
ton had wakened the sleeping spirit of war and the British in Boston 
were besieged. As the tidings of the slaughter on Lexington 
Common made its way south the people everywhere were aroused. 
At New York the royal troops were disarmed and their military 
supplies were seized. At Philadelphia the Independence bell was 
loudly rung. Day by day the news went farther south and stirred 
up new manifestations of patriotism. In Maryland, in Virginia, 
in the Carolinas, the powder of the public sentiment was fired. The 
people of Charleston seized the arsenal, and their provincial assembly 
proclaimed themselves ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in the 
cause of liberty. In Savannah the populace took possession of the 
powder magazine and planted a liberty pole. Even in far-off 
Kentucky, where Daniel Boone and his band of hunters lay en- 
camped, they gave the spot the name of Lexington. And Lexington 
it remains to this day. 

When the new Congress met, it was in a new mood. The line 
between peace and war had been crossed, and professions of loyalty 
to King George were no longer heard. This was especialty the case 
after November ist, when the king's proclamation denouncing the 
Americans in arms as rebels reached Philadelphia. The hesitation 
which had existed was now at an end, the Continental Congress began 

8 



114 



Seeds of Independence Planted 



to make secret preparations for war, its tone growing resolute and 
determined. In some of the colonies, indeed, hesitation continued. 
Pennsylvania, New York and the adjoining provinces expressed 
strong loyalty to the king. But New England and Virginia alike 
were hotbeds of rebelHous feehng, and this was also the case with 
other parts of the South. 

It is not our purpose to tell all that was done in that Congress. 
It will suffice here to say that when a commander was wanted for 
the new army in the field, Virginia was applied to and its noblest 







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son, George Washington, was chosen for the important post. A 
wise and fortunate choice it proved, for it is doubtful if any other 
man in America could have successfully grappled with the terrible 
task. Had we not had a Washington ready for the work it is more 
than doubtful if this country would have achieved its independence 
at that time. 

As the months went on the demand for a rupture of the political 
bonds that united us to England grew steadily more acute. The 
feeling in New England was fully repeated in the South. South 
Carolina ordered a fort to be built on Sullivan's Island, and on March 
21, 1776, adopted a constitution which practically created a new 
state government. The addresses delivered by John Rutledge 
during the preceding deliberations rivaled those of Patrick Henry 



Seeds of Independence Planted us 

in force and in defiance of English rule. North Carolina went 
farther still, giving her representatives instructions, on April 12, to 
vote for independence. Within two weeks South Carolina did the 
same, Chief-Justice Drayton declaring that the government of the 
province was independent of that of Great Britain. Virginia was 
soon in line, the House of Burgesses declaring on May 6 that their 
ancient constitution had been overthrown. The assembly, thereupon, 
dissolved, and a convention succeeded which declared for complete 
separation. A committee was appointed, consisting of Patrick 
Henry, James Madison, and George Mason, to prepare a declara- 
tion of rights and a plan of government. The resolution drawn up 
by this committee was general in its language, but breathed the 
spirit of liberty throughout. Many of its expressions recall those 
of Jefferson's famous declaration. It states: 

"All men are by nature equally free, and have inherent rights, 
of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any 
compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment 
of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing 
property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. All 
power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; mag- 
istrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to 
them. Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common 
benefit and security of the people, nation, or community; and when- 
ever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these 
purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable 
and indefensible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such a manner 
as shall be judged most conducive to the common weal. Public ser- 
vices not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, 
legislator, or judge to be hereditary." 

When the people were thus freely and defiantly speaking their 
minds, the time had evidently come for Congress to act decisively. It 
did not hesitate. And it is interesting to find that Virginia, the 
"Mother of States," was the first to take the radical step from 
which the more timid of the members had been fearfully holding off". 
On the 6th of June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, one of the leading 
representatives of that state, rose on the floor of Congress and offered 
a set of resolutions that put the alternative flatly before the House. 

These resolutions declared, "that these United Colonies are, and 
of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are 



1 16 



Seeds of Independence Planted 



absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; that all political 
connection between them and Great Britain is, and ought to be, 
totally dissolved; that it is expedient forthwith to take the most 
effectual measures for forming foreign alliances; and that a plan of 
confederation be prepared and transmitted to the several colonies 
for their consideration and approbation." 




THE CAPITOL AT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 

The Congress of the Confederate States of America came here in 1861 from Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, and sat until the day in April, 1865, when Lee was 
turned back at Petersburg and "ail was lost save honor." 

These resolutions did not fall still-born. Congress was ripe 
for such action. John Adams, of Massachusetts, was prompt to 
second them, and a committee of five, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, 
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. 



Seeds of Independence Planted 117 

Livingston, was appointed to draw up a declaration in accordance 
with the spirit of the resolutions. 

Jefferson was at that time a comparatively young man. He 
had reached his thirty-third year; but Adams was seven or eight 
years older, and he was a mere juvenile as compared with FrankHn. 
Yet Jefferson had made his reputation as an able thinker and a 
facde and graceful writer, and the difficult task of drawing up the 
Declaration of Independence was intrusted to him. The task was 
one of great difficulty. However he expressed himself, he was 
liable to be open to severe criticism. Yet he did not hesitate to 
undertake the work, and on the 28th of June the famous and 
remarkable state paper was completed and read to a deeply atten- 
tive and approving audience. 

On the 2d of July Lee's resolutions were put to a vote and passed 
by a majority of the delegates. It was the first great step in the 
solemn proceedings, and John Adams wrote home that he considered 
that day the most memorable epoch in the history of America, one 
that "ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, 
games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end 
of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore. " 

The American people have not accepted his suggestion in full, 
for they have chosen the 4th of July, the day on which Jefferson's 
V Declaration was adopted, as the true Independence Day. The 
change of date was well made. The passage of the resolutions was 
a mere legislative act; the adoption of Jefferson's magnificent paper 
was far more than this. America placed herself on record before the 
world, justified herself grandly for what she had done, and in an 
unanswerable argument laid down the new creed of Hberty and 
democracy. 

All must admit, English and American alike, that the Declara- 
tion of Independence is a production of splendid power, appealing, 
in noble and forcible language, to the highest principles of political 
right and virtue. This is done in no Utopian spirit, in no mood of 
vindictiveness, but with decorum, dignity, and good sense. The 
principles advocated by Jefferson were not new, they had long been 
extant in England. They had been insisted on in the early days of 
the colonies, but they were applied by him under novel circum- 
stances, and clearly and plainly put before the world the great 
principles of political liberty. Certainly, no more important act has 



ii8 



Seeds of Independence Planted 



ever taken place in the history of the world. On that day the great 
Western Republic, the United States of America, came into exis- 
tence. The United Colonies became the United States, and George 
III was deposed from a portion of his kingdom which in the future 
was to advance to a level with the noblest of kingdoms known to 
history. 




PATRICK HENRY'S GREAT SPEECH 

The Great Southern Patriot electrified his audience by 
boldly declaring that the colonists would not 
endure the oppression of the Home 
Government and eloquently ar- 
gued for Independence. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SOUTH AND ITS HEROES 
IN THE REVOLUTION 

Southern aid to Boston — Lord Dunmore and the People — Fort SulUvan and Sergeant 
Jasper — The first flags of the Repubhc — Light Horse Harry — Morgan and his 
riflemen — Morgan at Quebec — His defeat of Tarleton — The British take Sa- 
vannah and Charleston — Marion, the Swamp Fox — Marion and the British 
officers — Jack Davis and the dragoons — King's Mountain — ^Tarleton and the 
witty lady — Cornwallis at Yorktown. 

THE echo of the fatal shots at Lexington, with which the British 
soldiers in the North broke through the thin ice that lay 
between peace and war, awakened a responsive thrill in the 
southern heart from Maryland to Georgia. The patriotism of the 
South, indeed, had been strongly declared years before, from the 
time when Patrick Henry sent his electric words flashing through 
the House of Burgesses to the time when the southern colonies 
came to the relief of Boston in its day of dire need. The Boston 
Port Bill, passed by Parliament, had ruined the commerce of that 
port, and Boston was left without business and almost without food. 
In that time of distress the South vied with the North in sending 
supplies. South Carolina, for instance, sent the Bostonians two 
hundred barrels of rice, and North Carolina sent nearly ten thousand 
dollars in hard cash. 

When the news of the fights at Lexington and Concord reached 
the South, its sentiment of sympathy and patriotism blazed out in 
supreme ardor. Georgia and the Carolinas spurned the authority of 
their governors, seized arms and ammunition, and defied the rule 
of the British king. In Virginia the liberty-loving spirit quickly led 
to a warHke outbreak. Lord Dunmore, the governor, seized some 
public powder and loaded it on a vessel. This took place on April 

119 



120 The South and Its Heroes 

20, 1775, the day after the fight at Lexington, and days before the 
news of it reached Virginia. But the instant it was known the 
spirit of the citizens was ablaze. An armed body of Virginians, 
with Patrick Henry at their head, quickly appeared and demanded 
a return of the public stores. The doughty Dunmore, faced by 
muskets in the hands of men who were ready to use them, found it 
wise to pay for the powder he had taken, and hastened to put his 
pompous person in safety on a British man-of-war. 

Fuming with anger — like his predecessor Berkeley of a century 
before — he determined to punish the "rebels" for their contumacy. 
He armed several vessels, manned them with some of his Tory 
adherents and a number of slaves to whom he promised freedom, and 
landed to attack the provincials. Great Bridge, near the Dismal 
Swamp, was the locality of the sharp fight that followed. To the 
dismay of the governor, the provincials showed the courage of old 
soldiers, and he met with a disastrous defeat. Regaining his vessels, 
the irate Dunmore took a cruel revenge, by setting fire to Norfolk, 
a town of six thousand inhabitants, some of whom had fired on 
his ships, and burning it to the ground. After some more fighting 
Dunmore hastened to put himself beyond the reach of the Virginian 
patriots, and the southern colonies soon saw the last of their royal 
governors. 

The events here related are of particular importance as they 
began before any news of the affair at Lexington and Concord had 
reached Virginia, and showed that the patriots of the South did not 
wait for a New England initiative. In a measure it repeated the events 
of a century before, Patrick Henry taking the place of the "rebel" 
Bacon, and Dunmore of the autocratic Berkeley. 

In June, 1776, an event of more national importance took place. 
Washington had driven the British out of Boston, and hastened to 
New York with the expectation that that city would be attacked by 
the fugitive fleet. But Sir Peter Parker, the British admiral, had 
another object in view. Charleston, in South Carolina, seemed 
to lie temptingly open to attack, and he sailed thither with all speed, 
thinking he could easily take this rebel seaport. He did not know 
the South Carolinians. They were ready for him. On Sullivan 
Island, in Charleston harbor, they had built a fort of logs of the 
palmetto tree of the south, and within it was a band of true-hearted 
sons of Charleston, headed by the brave Colonel Moultrie. Upon 



The South and Its Heroes 121 

this wooden fort the warships poured a shower of iron balls, but they 
were wasted on its walls, burying themselves harmlessly in the 
spongy palmetto wood. The return fire from the fort was far more 
effective, and at one time Admiral Parker was left alone upon the 
deck of his flagship, Moultrie's hot fire having swept all others 
from the deck. Troops were then landed to attack the fort in the 
rear, but with no better fortune, for they were met with a rifle fire 
which they could not be brought to face. In the end Parker sailed 
disconsolately away, followed by the triumphant cheers of the brave 
defenders of the fort. 

We have not told the whole story of this affair. It was made 
famous by one of the most daring deeds in American history. 
Over the walls of the fort waved Colonel Moultrie's flag, a banner of 
blue with a white or silver crescent in the right hand corner, and 
bearing the one word "Liberty." A shot from the fleet cut the 
flag-staff in twain and the proud emblem fell to the strip of beach 
outside the wall. To attempt to recover it seemed an errand of 
certain death, for the fall of the flag was followed by a storm of plung- 
ing balls from the fleet. But a daring sergeant, William Jasper by 
name, without a moment's hesitation, sprang over the walls, seized 
the fallen flag, and climbed hastily back to the parapet, bearing 
his prize triumphantly in his grasp. Death passed him by un- 
touched, and amid the cheers of his companions he tied the flag 
to a new staff and set it again defiantly afloat. 

The next day Colonel Moultrie met the gallant fellow, with 
thanks and praises, and told him that he proposed to make him a lieu- 
tenant for his courage. Jasper modestly declined the proffered honor, 
asking to be left in the humble place to which he was fitted by his 
training and education. "I am only a sergeant,'- he said. "I am 
not fit for the company of officers." 

The flag of Fort Moultrie was not the first to fly in the South. 
Some of the Virginia militia who fought with Lord Dunmore had 
marched under another and a more notable one, the famous rattle- 
snake flag. The device on this was a coiled rattlesnake, with 
the warning motto, "Don't tread on me." It also bore Patrick 
Henry's words, "Liberty or Death!" This is much better known 
than the pine-tree flag of Massachusetts, used about the same time. 
The flag hoisted by Washington in the siege of Boston bore thirteen 
red and white stripes with the British "Union Jack" in the corner. 



122 



The South and Its Heroes 



It showed that the separation from the mother country was only 
half completed. To Washington we largely owe the final development 
of the "Stars and Stripes," adopted by Congress in June, 1777, and 
made under his orders by Betsy Ross, the famous flagmaker of 
Philadelphia. 

Two and a half years passed before the South saw any more 

of the war, the British 
being kept busy dur- 
ing this period in a 
strenuous effort to 
subdue the northern 
states. But they had 
Washington, the noble 
Virginia soldier, to 
deal with, and in the 
end found themselves 
baffled at eveiy point. 
At the close of this 
period of the war the 
city of New York was 
nearly the only impor- 
tant place in their 
hands. In his great 
labor Washington was 
ably aided by brave 
men and gallant offi- 
cers from all the col- 
onies, the South con- 
tributing its full share 
A HOUSE ON BULL STRLEi , SAVANNAH of skilled and patri- 

For almost half its distance, this street runs through otic Supporters. 

beautiful parks. Chief among thosc 

of southern blood was General Henry Lee, the famous "Light- 
Horse Harrv, " who was one of Washington's most efficient and 
trusted officers. This gallant Virginian has three high claims to 
distinction: first, his eminent services as a daring cavalry leader 
in the Revolutionary War; second, his noble eulogy on Washing- 
ton, to whom he applied the memorable phrase, "First in war, first 
in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen;" third, in the 




The South and Its Heroes 123 

deeds of his eminent son, Robert E. Lee, the brilliant military- 
leader of the Southern Confederacy in the Civil War. 

Lee's first service w^as in 1776, when he, at that time only 
tv^enty years of age, became a captain of cavalry. Joining Wash- 
ington's main army in September, 1777, he distinguished himself 
by several daring exploits. The best known and most brilliant of 
his enterprises in the North was the capture of the British fort at 
Paulus Hook, on the Hudson, opposite New York, in 1779. For 
this bold exploit Congress voted him a gold medal. 

Lee's later important services were in the South, where he 
joined General Greene's army in January, 1781, and in command 
of a cavalry legion formed the rear-guard of Greene's army in his 
famous retreat before Lord Cornwallis. *' Light Horse Harry," as 
he came to be called in the army, rendered important services in the 
engagement at Guilford Court House and at Fort Ninety-six, assisted 
in the capture of Augusta and the battle of Eutaw Springs, and in 
October joined Washington at Yorktown, where he won his share 
of the glory in the final affair of the war. We need only further to 
say that he afterward served as Governor of Virginia and as mem- 
ber of Congress, dying in 18 18. 

There was another of Washington's right hand men, the 
notable Daniel Morgan, widely known as the leader of a corps of rifle- 
men in the patriot army, who carved his name well and deeply in 
the records of the war. Morgan, though born in New Jersey, had 
lived in Virginia from childhood, and while still a youth was fond 
of the rough life of the frontier, in which he had some narrow escapes 
from the Indians. In 1755 he served as a wagoner in Braddock's 
expedition, showing in this duty the bold independence of the fron- 
tiersman. A British officer having insulted him, Morgan 
promptly retorted with a knock-down blow from his wagon whip. 
For this he was sentenced to the terrible punishment of five hun- 
dred lashes. These were given less one, and Morgan always 
afterward said that he owed King George one more lash. 

The time came when he amply repaid his debt. No sooner 
had the Revolution begun than he enlisted a company of riflemen 
and marched away for Washington's camp before Boston. Hardy 
young fellows were his followers, wearing linen hunting shirts 
with "Liberty or Death" emblazoned on their breasts. When they 
reached Boston, after a six-hundred-mile march, it was evening. 



124 The South and Its Heroes 

Washington, who was riding out, stopped as he saw them approach. 
Morgan stepped forward and saluted him, saying: 

"General, from the right bank of the Potomac. " 

Tears came to the general's eyes as he heard these words. 
He sprang from his horse, walked along the line, shook hands with 
the sturdy young recruits, and then mounted and rode off again 
without a word. His emotion was too deep for language. 

Of Morgan's exploits we must speak briefly. He joined 
Arnold in his terrible winter journey through the Maine forests, 
and was taken prisoner at Quebec in that desperate night attack in 
which the brave Montgomery was killed. He had fought with 
such valor that the British general sent for him and offered him a 
colonel's commission in the English army if he would join them. 
Morgan's reply was a stern rebuke for what he deemed the insult of 
the offer. 

Exchanged at length, he lost no time in rejoining Washington's 
army, and was made colonel of a rifle corps which won high celebrity 
under his command. It was especially distinguished at Saratoga, 
where Burgoyne's defeat is said to i---'-? been due to Morgan's daring 
attack. But his most famous exploit took place in the South, where 
he met the redoubtable Colonel Tarleton at Cowpens in South 
Carolina, and sent his boasted troops whirling back in utter defeat, 
such of them as did not remain in his hands. Up to that time the 
Americans had, except at King's Mountain, met with disaster in the 
South, but Morgan's splendid exploit changed the situation and did 
much to raise the spirit of the patriot bands. Soon after this victory 
a severe attack of rheumatism, a result of his long years of exposure, 
forced the gallant old rifleman to retire to rest upon his laurels. 

The war in the South practically began in December, 1778, 
when Savannah was attacked in force and taken. Augusta next 
fell into British hands, and Georgia, with its scanty population, 
was easily overrun. One of the great disasters of the war took 
place in the following September, when General Lincoln, aided by 
the French fleet, sought to recapture Savannah. He was repulsed 
with a loss of more than a thousand men slain, among them the 
noble Pole, Count Pulaski. But of more moment to Americans 
is the fact that Sergeant Jasper here gave up his life in his country's 
cause, clasping in his dying hands the banner which his regiment had 
received at Fort Moultrie. 



\ 



The South and Its Heroes 125 

As if thoroughly discouraged by their non-success in the 
North, the British devoted the final two years of the war in a vigorous 
endeavor to conquer and hold the South. In 1780 Charleston was 
besieged by a powerful force under General Clinton. General 
Lincoln defended the town with skill and courage, but, attacked by 
land and sea, besieged for forty days, and finally bombarded for 
forty-eight hours by two hundred cannon, he was at length obliged 
to surrender, and on May 12th the leading city of the South fell into 
the hands of the enemy. 

Lord Cornwallis was now put in command of the British 
forces in the South, and prepared to overrun South Carolina, as 



rf^SST-a-fiSa: 




|f r^ 




THE BATTERY, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 

This is the favorite promenade and the chief residence quarter. 

Georgia had been previously overrun. Expeditions were sent in 
various directions and many localities were occupied. The bold and 
ruthless Colonel Tarleton, the hard-riding cavalry leader, swept all 
before him, and General Gates, who had been given the credit of 
conquering Burgoyne, lost all credit by his utter defeat at Camden. 
His army was so completely scattered that he was seen soon after- 
ward eighty miles away without a soldier left of all his force. Two 
days afterward, August i8th. General Sumter's corps was met and 
almost annihilated by Tarleton's dragoons. When the summer 
ended South Carolina seemed at the mercy of CornwaUis and his 
army. 



126 The South and Its Heroes 

Did the patriots of South Carohna think so ? That is another 
question. Certainly the British troops found the old South State a 
very hot place to hold, the gallant partisan commanders, Marion, 
Pickens, Sumter and others darting about like so many stinging 
wasps and giving their foes little rest. Small as were the forces 
under these daring men, they were incessantly active, quick to 
attack and as hard as a weasel to catch. They continually an- 
noyed the invaders, cut off detachments, dispersed convoys and 
carried off their stores, and in a hundred ways made their presence 
felt. Yet to pursue them was almost in vain, for they were as skilled 
in hiding as alert in attack. 

Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of the South Carolina 
swamps and forests, is the most famous of these men, and as a hero 
of romance he has few equals in history. We can not serve our 
readers better than by giving a brief sketch of the brilliant career of 
this daring soldier and of the character of his exploits. . We may 
open it in the summer of 1780, when Gates was marching southward 
from North Carohna, with hopes of defeating the British forces. We 
have seen what came of those hopes at Camden, but we are 
here concerned with an episode of his march, preceding the period 
of his disastrous battle. 

The army had crossed the Pedee River, on its way southward, 
when there joined it a volunteer corps which was received with jest 
and laughter. It consisted in all of about twenty men, such scare- 
crows of soldiers as those that made up Falstaff's famous recruits. 
Some were boys and some men, some whites and some blacks; 
while their clothes were in tatters, their equipments laughable in 
their queer variety, their horses parodies on the fabled Rosinante. 
A motley troop it was, and at its head a small, spare-faced, modest 
looking horseman, his attire not much superior to that of his men, 
but with a flash in his eye that suppressed the mirth of the soldiers 
as he rode past. 

Yet unintrusive as this personage appeared, and ridiculous as 
his followers seemed to the Continental troops, he was not a man to 
be treated with disdain, for he was the famous Francis Marion, the 
Robin Hood of revolutionary days, the Swamp Fox, as he was called 
by the people of his state. But the self-sufficient Gates had no 
welcome for this ragged squad. Its leader ventured to give him 
some advice about the military condition of the .South, but found his 



The South and Its Heroes 127 

suggestions none too politely received, and he was soon got rid of 
by being sent on a scouting expedition in advance of the army, the 
work for which he and his men were best adapted. 

Small as was his following, Marion bore the title of colonel. 
He left the army as a general. Governor Rutledge, who was present 
and knew him and his work, gave him a brigadier's commission, with 
authority to enhst a brigade for partisan warfare in the swamp and 
forest region of the state. Away went General Marion with his 
score of scarecrows, doubtless leaving the army in a broad grin of 
laughter. They did not know then how soon their disciplined array 
would be broken and dispersed by the fire of the foe, and Marion 
be left almost alone to keep up the spirit of patriotism in his state. 
Until General Greene came into the field, Marion, Sumter and a 
few other partisan warriors with slender foUowings alone kept Hberty 
alive in the broad domain of the South. 

Marion was not long in adding to the numbers of his troop. 
In truth, his corps was constantly changing in size, now shrinking, 
now swelhng, now reduced to the motley score with which he joined 
Gates, now expanded to a hundred or more in dimensions. It rarely 
grew to any great size. Its home was the swamp, and food or 
shelter could not there be found for any large body of men. Lurk- 
ing in the swamps of the Pedee, he kept sharply on the watch for 
passing bodies of British and Tories, his men darting out like hornets 
to sting their incautious foes, and then vanishing into their coverts 
before the enemy could gather in dangerous strength. 

There were hiding places in abundance in the secret depths of 
the swamp-region, thicket-covered islands, reached by narrow 
paths which the foe could not hope to find. From these coverts he 
darted out to all quarters of the compass, striking the foe when least 
expected, quickly appearing at points many miles separated, and 
vanishing like a flitting cloud whenever strongly pursued. Rarely 
has so small a body of men proved so annoying to an enemy, or done 
so much to make a conquering army uneasy in its hold on a subjected 
country. 

At the point where Lynch's Creek joins the Pedee River there 
rose in the swamp a space of higher land, known as Snow's Island. 
It was a thickly forested region, abundantly supplied with game, and 
offering an excellent lurking ground for the partisan band. Its 
surface rose high and dry above the swamp level, covered with 



128 The South and Its Heroes 

thicket and canebrake, and crossed only by paths known to the 
patriot band. This was Marion's headquarters. He had various 
other hiding places in the swamps, but Snow's Island was his chosen 
home. 

There is an interesting anecdote that forms part of the romance 
of American history, and which goes to show how the Swamp Fox 
lived in this well-chosen retreat. A British ojfhcer had been sent to 
treat with Marion for an exchange of prisoners, and was welcomed 
to the camp, for captives were a burden for which the Swamp Fox 
had no use. But the envoy had to submit to be blindfolded and 
led through canebrake and thicket to the hidden camp, whose secret 
no enemy could be permitted to trace. When the bandage was 
removed from his eyes, the officer looked around him in surprise, 
almost fancying that he was in one of the old-time haunts of Robin 
Hood. Over him spread the boughs of grand old trees, so laden 
with moss that the sunlight had trouble to make its way in patches 
to the sward. On the ground below, amid the columned trunks, 
reclined groups of stalwart men, no two dressed alike, and with scarce 
a pretense of uniform. Their horses, on the island edge, contentedly 
cropped the thin herbage. It resembled a forest camp of outlaws, 
well content to dwell in the greenwood depths. 

That this ill-dressed, lounging party and their diminutive, quiet- 
looking commander were the celebrated band which had kept the 
British so long in alarm, was more than the astounded envoy could 
well believe. Yet it was past doubt, and Marion lost no time in 
concluding the business for which the officer had come, ending with 
a cordial request that he should dine with him. The officer looked 
round in inquiry. Where was the table, where the essentials of a 
civilized meal ? It looked as if he would have but Lenten fare. 

"We dine here in woodland fashion. Captain," smiled Marion. 
"Pray be seated." 

He took his seat on a mossy log, and pointed to an opposite 
one for his guest. Soon, from a brushwood fire at a distance, came 
the camp cook, with a heap of roasted sweet potatoes smoking on a 
large piece of bark. 

"Help yourself. Captain," said Marion, taking a potato from 
the rustic platter. 

"Surely, General," cried the officer, looking at the viands with 
eyes of wonder, "this cannot be your ordinary fare .?" 



The South and Its Heroes 129 

"Indeed it is," said Marion. "And we are fortunate on this 
occasion, having a guest to entertain, to have more than our usual 
allowance." 

The envoy had nothing more to say. He helped himself to the 
proffered viands with the appetite given by his journey. But tradi- 
tion reports that on his return he lost no time in resigning his com- 
mission, saying that a people who could go to war with no better 
fare than roots could not and should not be subdued, and that he, 
for one, would not fight against them. 

So greatly were the British annoyed by Marion that in the end 
they sent Col. Wemyss, one of their best cavalry officers, to hunt him 
down and crush him. Marion was then far from his hiding place, 
and found himself hotly pursued by Wemyss, who had got upon his 
trail. But the Swamp Fox proved hard to catch, and was too wary 
to fight where he had no chance to win. He led his pursuer a lively 
chase, making his way swiftly northward into North Carolina by a 
route intersected by swamps and streams. Wemyss lost the trail, 
and found it only to lose it again. At length, hopeless of overtaking 
the wily partisan, he turned back, revengefully desolating the 
country from which he had driven its most active defender. 

He reckoned without his host if he fancied that he had the game 
in his own hands. Marion, who had but sixty followers, halted and 
sent out scouts as soon as the pursuit ceased. In a short time he was 
back in the ravaged district. The people, infuriated with their 
losses, joined him in numbers with horse and rifle, and he was soon 
in condition to strike a heavy blow. Riding in all haste to the Black 
Mingo, below Georgetown, he surprised, at midnight, a large body 
of Tories there assembled and attacked them with such suddenness 
and vigor that they were almost annihilated, while he lost but a 
single man. 

Discouraged by this swift retribution, the British gave Marion a 
period of rest. Then Tarleton, the hard-riding marauder of the 
South, took upon himself the task of crushing the wily Swamp Fox. 
He scoured the country, burning and destroying in his usual fashion, 
but, with all his skill and speed, faihng to catch the hornet of the 
swamps. Marion was at home now. He did not fly from the foe, 
but managed to remind him unpleasantly 6f his constant presence. 

More than once Tarleton fancied that he had run him down, 
and halted for the night within a few miles of him, expecting to 



130 The South and Its Heroes 

crush him at break of day. But in some neighboring thicket or morass 
Marion would be watching his over-confident foe, and at midnight 
would strike him sharply in rear or flank. In the end Tarleton 
withdrew from the task as Wemyss had done before him, cursing 
this fellow who "would not fight like a gentleman and a Christian." 

He had no sooner withdrawn than Marion was at his old work 
again. Major Lee — the noted "Light Horse Harry" — was sent by 
General Greene to join him, that the two might make an attack on 
the British garrison at Georgetown. Lee had no little trouble in 
finding him. He was so constantly in motion that friend and foe 
alike found him hard to trace. At length they met, and a midnight 
assault was m.ade on Georgetown. It proved unsuccessful, but 
helped greatly to add to the uneasiness of the foe. 

In the spring of 1781 another attempt was made to "crush 
Marion." Colonel Watson, with a force of five hundred men, now 
succeeded in finding him, but not much to his own comfort. Marion 
was then at his Snow's Island camp, and from this point struck 
several quick and heavy blows in widely diff^erent localities. At 
length he and Watson unexpectedly met and a fight ensued. Wat- 
son had field-pieces, and Marion was forced to retreat. Reaching 
Black River, he kept back the foe with sharp volleys until he had 
burned the bridge by which he crossed. Then a peculiar contest 
followed. The two parties marched down the stream for ten miles, 
constantly skirmishing across the water, but neither able to get near 
the other, until darkness ended the fight. Each pitched his camp on 
his own side of the stream, and for ten days Watson remained there, 
unable to get at his foe, and losing daily from Marion's constant 
raids. In the end he made a midnight flight, in fear of being de- 
stroyed in detail. To him is due the remark, already quoted, that 
Marion would not "fight like a gentleman and a Christian." 

When too hotly pursued by a superior force, and with none of 
his lurking places at hand, Marion had another way of discomfiting 
his foes. His command would break up into small parties, and these 
into smaller, until nearly every patriot was making his way alone, 
by routes unknown to the foe, to some distant meeting place. There 
is a story apropos of this which is worth repeating. 

"We will o-ive fifty pounds to get within reach of the scamp that 
galloped by here, just ahead of us," exclaimed a lieutenant of 



The South and Its Heroes 



131 




TARLETONS LIEUTENANT AND THE FARMER (JACK DAVISJ . 



132 The South and Its Heroes 

Tarleton's cavalry, as he and three other troopers drew up before 
a farmer, who was hoeing in the field by the roadside. 

The farmer looked up, leaned on his hoe, took off his old hat 
and, mopping his forehead with his handkerchief, looked at the 
angry soldier and said: 

"Fifty pounds is a big lot of money." 

" So it is; but we'll give it to you in gold, if you'll show us where 
we can get our eyes on this rebel. You must have seen him." 

" He was all alone, wasn't he ? And he was mounted on a 
black horse with a white star in his forehead, and was going like a 
streak of hghtning. " 

"That's the fellow!" exclaimed the questioners, hoping they 
were about to get the knowledge they wanted. 

" It looked to me like Jack Davis, though he went by so fast 
that I couldn't get a square look at his face, but he was one of 
Marion's men, and if I ain't greatly mistaken it was Jack Davis 
himself." 

Then looking up at the four British horsemen, the farmer 
added, with a quizzical expression: 

"I reckon that ere Jack Davis has hit you chaps pretty hard, 
ain't he V 

"Never mind about that," replied the lieutenant; "what we 
want to know is where we can get a chance at him for just about 
five minutes." 

The farmer put his cotton handkerchief into his hat, which he 
now slowly replaced, and shook his head: "I don't think he's 
hiding round here," he said. "When he shot by Jack was going 
so fast that it didn't look as if he could stop under four or five miles. 
Strangers, I'd like powerful well to earn that fifty pounds, but I 
don't think you'll get a chance to squander it on me." 

After some further questioning, the lieutenant and his men 
wheeled their horses and trotted back toward the main body of 
Tarleton's cavalry. The farmer plied his hoe for several minutes, 
gradually working his way toward the stretch of woods some fifty 
yards from the roadside. Reachmg the margin of the field, he 
stepped in among the trees, hastily took off his clothing, tied it up 
in a bundle, and shoved it under a flat rock from beneath which he 
drew a suit no better in quality, but showing a faint resemblance to 
a uniform. 



The South and Its Heroes 133 

Putting it on and then plunging still deeper into the woods, he 
soon reached a dimly-marked track, which he followed only a short 
distance, when a gentle whinny fell upon his ear. The next mo- 
ment he vaulted on the back of a bony but blooded horse, marked by a 
beautiful star in his forehead. The satin skin of the steed shone as 
though he had been travehng hard, and his rider allowed him to 
walk along the path for a couple of miles, when he entered an open 
space where, near a spring, Francis Marion and fully two hundred 
men were encamped. They were eating, smoking and chatting as 
though no such horror as war was known. 

It scarcely needs to be said that the farmer who leaned on his 
hoe by the roadside and talked to Tarleton's lieutenant about 
Jack Davis and his exploits was Jack Davis himself. 

It must be stated that, while well filled with patriots, the 
Carolinas were not lacking in a very undesirable element of the 
population, those known by themselves as Loyalists but by the 
patriots as Tories, a class with which all the colonies in rebellion 
were far too well suppHed. They swarmed in the Carohnas, many 
of them joining the British army, others plundering and often murder- 
ing their patriot neighbors. It was against these fellows that 
Marion and Sumter directed much of their efforts, and in October, 
1780, the Tory forces met with a disastrous defeat in one of the most 
notable battles of the war. 

To go back a step, it needs to be said that after the defeat of 
Gates, he was succeeded by General Greene, a man of very different 
caliber. Greene was able, active and vigilant, but he sadly lacked 
men and money, and the North Carolina governor, fearing that 
his state might suffer the fate of South Carolina and Georgia, 
made an earnest appeal to the bold backwoodsmen of East Tennes- 
see to come to the aid of the Old North State, on whose soil nearly 
all of them had been born. The frontiersmen responded eagerly, nine 
hundred of them — no braver men ever sat in saddle — riding across 
the mountain passes to encounter Colonel Ferguson, who, with a party 
of British and Tories, eleven hundred strong, had gathered upon 
King's Mountain, preparatory to raiding the low country. 

Ferguson was a good soldier, and he had the advantage in 
numbers and position. But the men of Tennessee were there to 
win and were not to be stayed in their advance. Ferguson handled 
his men skilfully, but the sharp-shooting riflemen of the Tennessee 



134 The South and Its Heroes 

mountains pressed him steadily back, and finally a rifle bullet laid 
him low. There was little resistance after that. Over four hundred 
and fifty of the enemy had fallen before the unerring rifles of the 
frontier, when the remainder threw down their arms and yielded 
themselves prisoners. 

It was an inspiriting victory, that filled with joy the heart 
of patriotic America. "The joyful turning of the tide," Jefferson 
called it. Bancroft, the historian, speaks of it more enthusiastically 
still. He says, "The victory of King's Mountain, which in the 
spirit of the American soldiers was like the rising at Concord, in its 
effect, like the success at Bennington, changed the aspect of the war. " 

Such seemed to be the case, for from this time on the tide of 
affairs turned in favor of the patriots. Ably aided by two gallant 
southern generals, Lee and Morgan, Greene soon made the British 
feel that they had new blood to deal with. Morgan, as we have 
stated, won at Cowpens, a place near King's Mountain, a victory 
as important in its results; and though Greene lost the battle of 
Guilford Court House, his defeat had the effect of a victory, and 
Cornwallis dared not attempt to pursue. In fact he was soon 
obliged to retreat, and eventually found it necessary to seek the soil 
of Virginia and leave the Carolinas to their fate. 

Reverting to Morgan's victory at Cowpens, of which we have 
already twice spoken, it is of interest to say something of another 
gallant Virginian who took part in that affray. This was Colonel 
William Washington, a cousin of the commander-in-chief, and a 
dashing cavalry leader. During the battle he had a personal en- 
counter with Tarleton, on whom he inflicted a sword wound, the 
doughty Briton escaping capture only through the speed of his 
horse. This fact did not add to Tarleton's love for the patriot 
colonel. Soon after, in a company of South CaroHna ladies, the 
Briton sneeringly remarked: 

"I have been told that Colonel Washington is very illiterate, 
and can scarcely write his name." 

"At least he can make his mark," retorted one of his fair hearers. 

On another occasion Tarleton said that he would like to see 
Colonel Washington. The same witty lady was ready with an 
answer: 

"You might have had that pleasure if you had looked behind 
you at the battle of Cowpens. " 



The South and its Heroes 135 

General Greene continued to seize one position after another, 
driving the scattered bodies of the British through South Carohna 
and finally meeting them face to face at Eutaw Springs, where 
another severely contested battle took place; in which, as at Guilford, 
the British claimed the honors of the day, but which also resulted in 
their ultimately giving way before the Americans and entrenching 
themselves in Charleston. Now, indeed, the British decided to 
move into Virginia, not, as originally planned, after having subdued 
the Carolinas, but because the more southern states were no longer 
tenable. It seemed almost as if Greene were dehberately driving 
them northward so that in the end they might lie between two 
American armies. 

Cornwallis, at any rate, being near the northern seacoast of 
North Carolina, deemed it advisable to try his fortune among the 
Virginians, whose state for some time the traitor Arnold had been 
raiding, with Lafayette in the field against him. What followed is 
too familiar to all readers to need more than a few words of de- 
scription. Incautiously shutting himself up in Yorktown, Corn- 
wallis suddenly found himself besieged by Washington, at the head 
of a combined army of Americans and French. In the bay outside 
lay the French fleet. Cornwallis had put himself in a trap from 
which there was no escape by land or water, and after a week's 
severe bombardment was forced to surrender his whole army. 

"O God, it is all over!" cried Lord North, when he heard of 
this event. It was, indeed, all over, and American independence was 
won. It is of especial interest to us, in view of our subject, that 
this great event took place on Southern soil, and that it was a son of 
Virginia to whose military genius American independence was due. 



CHAPTER VII. 

FAMOUS PATHFINDERS AND 
PIONEERS OF THE SOUTH 

Daniel Boone as a boy — Boone's inscription — John Finley — Boone seeks Kentucky — 
Adventures with the Indians — Colonel Henderson and the Land Company — A 
Kentucky fort — Boone's daughter captured and rescued — Boone a prisoner — 
His escape and the siege of the fort — George Rogers Clark and his project — The 
British in the Northwest — Clark's expedition sets out — The ball at Kaskaskia 
and its capture — The British at Vincennes — The march through the overflow — 
Clark captures Vincennes — The important result of Clark's expedition. 

COOPER, in his thrilling "Leather-stocking" tales, has given 
us a vivid picture of the hfe of the daring scouts and Indian 
fighters of early American days. Imaginative as some of his 
stories of adventure are, they do not far transcend reality, for in the 
life of the indomitable Daniel Boone we have a record of hair- 
breadth escapes and "moving accidents by flood and field" that rival 
those of Cooper's famous frontier hero. It is to Boone we owe the 
settlement of Kentucky and the addition of a new pearl to the 
Southern crown, and our record of the building of the Old South 
would be far from complete without the story of this prince of 
hunters and frontiersmen. 

Daniel Boone was a boy when his father made his way from 
Pennsylvania to North Carohna, where he built a new home in the 
mountainous western region of that colony. He was a born hunter 
and forester. On one occasion, while still a child, he disappeared 
from home, and was found, after a long search, beside a fire he had 
kindled in the woods, where he was cooking the game he had shot 
and playing the backwoods hunter to perfection. His love of 
hunting, his skill with the rifle, and his expertness as a scout grew 
with his years, and there was no one in the country better fitted to 

136 



Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 137 

circumvent the wiles of the savage foe than this young settler in the 
Carolina wilds. 

West of the home of the Boones ran the great Appalachian 
mountain system, a region nearly fifty miles in width, traversed by 
parallel chains, all rugged and some almost impassable. It seemed 
like a Chinese Wall of nature's building which no foot could cross, 
yet the frontier hunters of Carolina were not easily daunted, and 
years before Boone's story began some of them had made their way 
across the mountain barrier and set foot on the soil of Tennessee. 
Inspired by the stories told by these pioneers. Dr. Thomas Walker, 











-- ^ -- J- 




' ^^-^t 






AN OLD INDIAN FARM-HOUSE 



of Virginia, led an expedition in 1756 into this region and laid claim 
to its new and virgin land for that state. Other parties followed 
from time to time, and there is strong evidence that young Boone 
went with one of these parties as early as 1760. At any rate, on an 
old tree near the stage road between Jonesboro and Blountsville, 
Tennessee, there has been found, carved in the bark, the following 
inscription: "D. Boon cilled a Bar on tree in The year 1760." 
Evidently, if Boone actually wrote this, his skill with the pen was far 
less than with the rifle. 

While the pioneer settlement of Tennessee was thus set in train 



13^ Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 

Kentucky remained unknown. Dr. Walker probably trod on its 
soil in one of his journeys, but its true discovery and exploration were 
left for the famed hunter of North Carolina. Yet Boone had a prede- 
cessor from his own neighborhood. A bold hunter named John 
Finley, with some companions, crossed the mountains in 1767 and 
gazed upon this new Eden, a land full of game, salubrious in climate, 
and seemingly formed by nature for the planting ground of a great 
state. Finley and his fellows returned with marvelous stories of 
what they had seen, the woods, the glades, the streams, the abun- 
dance of animals, the delights of the climate and situation. Their 
story was one to excite and inspire all men of adventurous spirit. 
This was the effect it had on Daniel Boone. He burned with desire 
to explore and settle this hunter's paradise, and in 1769 entered upon 
that career which was to make him the most famous of American 
pioneers. 

It was no land of ease, no haven of safety, to which he proposed 
to go. The right to settle Tennessee had been purchased from the 
Cherokees, who claimed that region as their own. But Kentucky 
was a no-man's land. No tribe of Indians possessed it, and it 
served as a hunting ground for all the neighboring tribes. Hostile to 
each other as these frequently were, desperate battles were not 
uncommon on its soil, and it had won the grimly significant title of 
"The dark and bloody ground." Such was the land of peril which 
Daniel Boone, in company with John Finley, John Steuart and 
several others, set out in 1769 to traverse and explore. Among these 
adventurers Boone from the first showed himself the master spirit. 

It was no light task to cross those fifty miles of mountains, but 
the explorers finally stood on a mountain crest overlooking the fertile 
valleys watered by the Kentucky River. There were herds of 
buffalo and of deer in sight, and evidences of game were everywhere 
abundant. The country was luxuriant almost beyond description in 
its vegetation, and it seemed indeed, as Finley had described it, "a 
hunter's paradise. " From the cane-brakes in the river bottoms to 
the forest trees that crowned the wooded hills it appeared to be a 
land of peace and plenty, and there was nothing to indicate the perils 
which lurked within its forest depths. 

Boone and his party encamped within view of all this beauty 
and wealth of nature, in a rock-cleft over which had fallen a giant 
tree. This camp from time to time they improved and enlarged. 



Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 139 

and it remained their headquarters during the succeeding summer 
and autumn. Through all that time they roamed and hunted freely, 
finding abundance of game, exploring the country thoroughly, but 
meeting with none of the red inhabitants. 

In the autumn Boone and John Steuart one day left their com- 
panions and plunged into the forest for a little longer excursion than 
usual. One cannot but imagine what the scene must have been at 
that season of the year in the forest primeval. The rich luxuriance 
of vegetable life and the plentiful supply of game must have appealed 
strongly to the feelings of these hunters, whose sense of security had 
not yet been disturbed by any encounters. Of all this domain they 
had literally been in peaceful possession until then. Suddenly the 
feeling of safety was rudely dissipated by the appearance of a band of 
Indians, who surprised Boone and Steuart so completely that resis- 
tance was out of the question, and they were taken prisoners. 

Making their way with their captives toward the villages of 
their tribe, on the seventh night after the capture the Indians en- 
camped in a cane-brake and built their fire. Perhaps the fatigue of 
a long march made them abate something of their customary caution; 
at all events, as they slept by the fire, Boone, who was always on the 
alert, saw his opportunity to extricate himself from among them and 
escape. Refusing, however, to abandon his companion, although 
knowing that the risk of waking him was very great, as the slightest 
noise would alarm their captors, he went to where Steuart was 
sleeping, and taking hold of him, succeeded in rousing him without 
noise. They crept silently away and by morning were out of 
reach of the Indians and far on their way back to camp. They 
reached there without being overtaken, but only to find that Finley 
and the others had disappeared. They were never heard of again. 

Early in the next year Squire Boone, Daniel's brother, arrived 
with a companion. On their approach to camp they were sharply 
challenged, not being at once recognized; but the meeting was 
naturally one of great rejoicing when the hermits found who their 
visitors were. Now, for the first time since leaving home, Boone 
heard from his family, received messages from his wife, and learned 
how his boys were progressing with the little farm. It was not long 
after this that Boone and Steuart were again attacked by the Indians, 
and this time Steuart was killed. Not long afterward Squire 
Boone's companion strayed from camp, to which he never returned. 



I40 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 

These misfortunes left the two brothers entirely alone, and as 
ammunition was running low the later comer decided to return home 
and get the necessary supphes. We hardly know which to admire 
most, the courage of the man who would face the perils of that 
return journey by himself, or the fortitude of the other who remained 
alone in that wild country, infested by his enemies, and for three 
months obhged to shift his camp constantly to avoid discovery. 
From his own account of this part of his life we find, however, that 
those days which he passed alone in the wild woods of Kentucky, 
depending upon his own skill and vigilance, eluding his enemies 
and tracking his game, were far from being the least pleasant in his 
life. To dwell alone in the solitude of the woods was to him the 
essence of romance and enjoyment. After an absence of three 
months Boone's brother returned with the needed supplies, and the 
two hunters continued their perilous yet much loved work. But 
hunting was only one of the purposes of these hardy and daring men. 
The exploration of the country was a still more important one, and 
when they finally returned to North Carolina in 1 771, it was with a 
satisfactory knowledge of the character and promise of that new land. 
Certainly Boone's account of it was warm and enthusiastic. He 
could not speak too highly of its fertility, the beauty of its mountains 
and streams, and the delightful character of its climate, and but 
for the difficulty of the journey and the peril which lurked in its 
forest depths, half the colony would have been ready to follow him 
across the mountain barrier. 

History of late years has shed a new light on Boone's exploits. 
It is said that a Colonel Henderson, a noted character of that time, 
with several others of prominence had formed a land company to 
purchase the new country from the Cherokees, or at least its southern 
part, to which this tribe laid claim, and to found there a State or 
Republic independent of English rule. This they proposed to 
name Transylvania. There is some reason to believe that it was 
in the interest of this company that Boone made his first exploration 
of "The dark and bloody ground" of Indian war and legend. 

His second journey was unquestionably for the purpose of 
negotiating with the Cherokees, and making all the preliminary 
arrangements for the purchase of the tract. If his report of the 
nature of the land had induced the formation of the company, he 
was no less successful in conducting the second part of the business. 



Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 141 

When he had arranged terms with the Cherokees, Colonel Henderson 
joined him on the Watauga to conclude the bargain. There he met 
the Indians in solemn conclave, took part in their council, smoked 
the peace pipe, and paid in merchandise the purchase-money for 
Kentucky, receiving from the Indians a deed for the same. The 
Cherokees sold Kentucky as they had already sold Tennessee, but 
with far less rightful claim to the land. 

Colonization was next in order, and Boone undertook with a 
party to open a road from the Holston River to the Kentucky 
River, and to erect stations or forts. Gathering a party for the 
purpose, they eventually, after a laborious march through the 




INDIAN AGENCY 

It was to these agencies that the Indians came to exchange their valuable blankets 

and skins for trinkets, liquor and ammunition. 

wilderness, in the course of which they lost several men, arrived 
at the spot where Boonesborough now stands. There they fixed 
their camp and built the foundations for a fort. Near this place 
was a salt hck. A few days after the commencement of the fort a 
member of the party was killed during an attack by Indians, but 
for some time after that there was no disturbance. 

This was the beginning of colonization in Kentucky. It was, 
of course, commenced under the impression that the Cherokee 
purchase was good, but the vaUdity of the Indian deed was at once 
denied by the governor of North Carolina and also by the Govern- 



142 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 

ment of Virginia, as well as by that of Tennessee. Yet each of these 
states, granted to the land company large tracts of land on the same 
territory, so that while unsuccessful in founding an independent 
repubhc, Colonel Henderson and his associates became very 
wealthy. For a long time those who were doing the actual work on 
the frontier, bearing the hardships and the brunt of battle, did not 
know that any question had been raised as to the vahdity of the 
title under the Indian purchase, and still supposed themselves to be 
engaged in the founding of a new and free commonwealth. 

A fort at that day meant a structure of a very primitive kind. 
Butler, in his History of Kentucky, says: "A fort in those times 
consisted of pieces of timber sharpened at the ends and firmly 
lodged in the ground. Rows of these pickets enclosed the desired 
space, which embraced the cabins of the inhabitants. One or more 
block houses, of superior care and strength, commanding the sides 
of the ditch, completed the fortifications or stations, as they were 
called. Generally, the sides of the interior cabins formed the sides 
of the fort." 

About thirty or forty new settlers came to Boonesborough with 
Colonel Henderson, to whom Boone had written. So far the new- 
comers were all men. Before long, however, the leader returned for 
his own family, and others, to the number of twenty-six men, four 
women, and half a dozen boys and girls, accompanied him back 
through the Cumberland Gap. Before arriving at Boonesborough 
the little caravan separated, part of them settling at another point, 
where they built a fort of their own. Mrs. Boone and her daughters 
were the first white women to arrive at Boonesborough and settle 
there. Other settlers followed with new colonies, and these began 
to make Kentucky their home. One of the stations was called 
Harrod's Old Cabin, another was named Logan. Among the men 
of prominence were Simon Kenton, John Floyd, Colonel Richard 
Callaway, and others whose names appear again and again in the 
early annals of the country. 

Among the exciting episodes of the first years in Kentucky was 
the capture of one of Boone's daughters and two of Callaway's 
daughters by the Indians. The oldest of these girls was about 
twenty and the youngest fourteen years of age. They were sitting 
in a canoe under the trees which overhung the bank of the river 
opposite the fort. There they were surprised by the Indians and 




BATTLE OF RESACA DE LA PALMA. 
Captain May leaped his steed over the parapet, followed by those of 
his men whose horses could do a like feat, and was among the gunners 
the next moment, sabering them right and left. General La Vega and 
a hundred of his men were made prisoners and borne back to the Amer- 
ican lines. 



Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 143 

taken away before their friends discovered their peril. This 
happened so near nightfall that pursuit was impossible, but in the 
morning Boone and Floyd started in pursuit. They surprised the In- 
dians that day as they halted to cook, and, killing one or two, drove 
the rest away. FeeHng their own force too weak for pursuit, they were 
glad to return with the rescued girls. The account of this event, 
affording, as it did, evidence of the hostility of the savages, induced 
nearly three hundred people to return to their former homes during 
the next few months. 

It may well be imagined indeed that the Indians did not view 
this invasion of their ancient hunting grounds by the whites with 
equanimity. Bitterly hostile to these white invaders, they lay in 
wait for them, and sought every opportunity to cut them off. To 
leave the fort on the hunt for game was at the risk of the hunter's 
being hunted as game. The story of the adventures of these bold 
foresters is full of thrilling incidents and hair-breadth escapes, in 
which Boone figured prominently. But so great was his skill and 
prowess, so many his escapes from Indian wiles, that the savages 
came to look upon him as bearing a charmed life, and to admire 
him highly for the qualities which most appealed to them. 

Good fortune, however, at length deserted the daring hunter. 
He was taken prisoner with a party who were surprised by a strong 
band of Indians while making salt at the Salt Lick Springs. The 
Indians were overjoyed to get their great enemy into their hands. 
Their captives were taken north, and all but Boone were ransomed 
by the British at Detroit. For the great hunter the red men would 
accept no ransom. He was taken to their village at Chillicothe, 
and there was formally adopted into their tribe, the Shawanee, he 
being made a member of the family of Blackfish, a distinguished 
chief. Boone accepted the situation with much assumed equanimity 
and became as good an Indian as any of his new associates. Yet 
the wily savages did not trust his easy acquiescence in his fate; 
he was keenly watched and, while permitted to hunt, was given too 
little ammunition to serve him in an attempt to escape. They knew 
he would not venture on a journey of several hundred miles 
without the means of obtaining food. But, by cutting his bullets 
in half and using very small charges of powder, Boone managed 
gradually to accumulate a small supply of this necessary material. 

A crisis came at length. Though familiar with their language 



144 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 

he so shrewdly concealed this fact from his captors, that they spoke 
freely in his hearing, and eventually he overheard them discussing 
a plot they had formed for the capture ot Boonesborough. Boone 
v^ell knew^ that a sudden assault on that place would probably be 
successful, in the bad condition of the fort and the lack of suspicion 
in its inmates. If taken, his own wife and children might be among 
the slain. The only hope of safety for the settlers lay in him. 
Unless he could escape all was lost. 

Hiding his apprehensions behind a smiling equanimity and 
apparent ignorance, he waited his time. On the r6th of June, I777' 
he set out as usual to hunt. He failed to appear when the ordinary 
time for his return had arrived and the Indians, suspecting something 
wrong, sent out several of the young men of the village upon his 
track. Their report was alarming. The hunter had disappeared. 
Without delay the best scouts and fleetest runners of the tribe were sent 
out to trace the fugitive and bring him back. Boone was then well 
on his way to far-ofi^ Kentucky, with the ammunition he had 
saved, but at first he dared not fire for fear of some keen ear catching 
the distant report. And if he had killed any game, he would not 
have ventured to kindle a fire to cook it, lest some sharp eye should 
see its smoke. A Httle dried venison which he had secreted was 
all the food he possessed during a journey of several days in length. 

But keen and sharp of sight and of wits as were his pursuers, 
Boone was more than their match at their own game. There was 
not one of their wiles with which he was not familiar. Despite 
their active pursuit he kept well out of reach, and at length found 
himself on the banks of the Ohio River, having distanced all pur- 
suit. But the river was swollen into a turbid torrent a half mile 
wide. With all his skill in woodcraft Boone was not a good swimmer, 
and dared not trust himself to this wild flood. Fortunately, good 
luck here befriended him. An old canoe lay stranded on the shore. 
There was a large hole in one end, but he succeeded in closing this 
and safely crossed the stream. Once more on Kentucky soil, he 
felt safe in shooting a wild turkey and kindling a fire to cook his 
meal. It was the first food beyond his scant ration of venison that 
he had tasted for five days. 

Danger of capture was now at an end, but he hurried on at all 
speed to the fort, the peril of which was imminent. There he was 
greeted as a dead man come to Hfe, and learned that his wife and 



Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 145 

children, believing him dead, had gone back to North Carolina. 
The fort itself was in no condition to sustain an Indian assault, and 
it needed all his experience and energy to put it in a proper state of 
defence in time to meet the coming peril. 




READY FOR THE TRAIL 
Modern Pioneers of the Wilderness. 



We must tell briefly what followed. There were but fifty men 
in the fort. There were nearly four hundred and fifty of the Indian 
braves who soon after appeared against it, led by Captain Duquesne 
and some other Frenchmen, in addition to their own chiefs. The 



146 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 

situation seemed desperate. Dividing into two parties, the assailants 
kept up an incessant fire for nine days and nights. They sought to 
enter the fort by digging a mine from the river. They attempted to 
burn it by aid oi blazing arrows. They endeavored to capture Boone 
and his chief men in a pretended parley. They tried every savage 
subterfuge, but at length, despairing of success, they gave up the 
attempt and marched away, much to the relief of the garrison. 

This ended the last effort to drive the whites from Kentucky. 
From that time on its population grew rapidly, the Revolutionary 
War having the effect to divert many settlers westward. So full 
of people indeed did it become that, as the tradition goes, Daniel 
Boone, finding that he had neighbors within three or four miles, 
concluded that the country was fast becoming too thickly settled 
for his comfort, and set out for the wilderness of Missouri 
beyond the great river of the west. This story, very pretty as 
tradition, is probably not very good as fact, and does not agree with 
the actual incidents of Boone's later life. He really went to Mis- 
souri because he had been unjustly deprived of his lands in Ken- 
tucky through a defect in the title. 

Of all the pioneers of America there are none who have won so 
high a reputation as a hunter, Indian fighter, and settler of new lands, 
as the redoubtable Daniel Boone. But there were many among his 
followers and associates as daring and little less skilful than himself. 
And among them was one who in his way did a still greater work for 
his country than Boone himself. This was the indomitable path- 
finder, George Rogers Clark, whose service to his country was, in 
its way, unsurpassed by that of any other Southern leader in the 
War of the Revolution. It is to Clark we owe the fact that the 
struggle for independence did not end with the great region north of 
the Ohio in the hands of Great Britain. What this would have 
meant to our country it is not easy to say. With the great range of 
states west of Pennsylvania lost to us, with the Ohio as the southern 
border of Canada, the United States would have been frightfully 
handicapped in its development, unless it escaped from the difficulty 
at the terrible cost of another war. It was from this that George 
Rogers Clark, one of the early settlers of Kentucky, saved us, by an 
enterprise which, for boldness of conception and skill and daring 
in execution, has scarcely a rival in the whole history of our land. It 
reads like romance. No novel could be of more intense interest. 



Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 147 

Yet with all this it has the further advantage of being the 
sober truth. 

Clark was a native of Virginia, a man of good family and 
education, whose career, like that of Washington, had begun in the 
active and arduous life of a frontier surveyor. Strong of frame, and 
adventurous in spirit, he early made his way to Kentucky, where he 
spent a year in surveying, hunting, and fighting with the red men; 
now camping out alone in the woods, now seeking shelter in the 
forts, and winning for himself the reputation of being one of the 
ablest of the men of the frontier. 

But Clark, while he lived the life of a backwoodsman, revolved 
larger schemes in his mind than those of the rude hunters among 
whom his life was passed. To make it evident what these were we 
must briefly describe the situation of ajffairs in the great West. 
The settlements at that time were confined to Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee. But in 1776 the highest dignity that Tennessee had attained 
was that of "The County of Washington in North Carolina." 
Kentucky, in 1777, possessed only three military stations, the abiding 
places of its mighty hunters and fighters. In 1776 it had been made 
a county of Virginia, not gaining a separate territorial organization 
until 1790. In the great region north ot the Ohio there was at 
this period not an American settlement and scarcely an American 
hunter. It was claimed by the British and formed part of the 
province of Quebec. The only settlements were those formerly 
made by the French, including Detroit on the lakes, Vincennes on 
the Wabash, Kaskaskia and Cahokia on the Illinois, and others of 
minor note. Quaint little frontier towns those, inhabited by French 
Creoles but under the rule of British ofiicers. None of the Atlantic 
states, then battling for independence, possessed an acre of land in 
all this vast expanse. 

This was not all. Numerous Indian tribes dwelt and hunted 
within this wide domain, and these the commanders of the British 
posts did their utmost to stir up to murderous incursions on the 
American settlements. Many a merciless Indian foray upon the 
settlers of the west owed its origin to the efforts of the officers of 
those British forts. It was this state of affairs that Clark had in view 
in the enterprise which he undertook. In the states the people were 
fighting for life against the British armies. The savage raids of the 
Western Indians upon their rear added seriously to the difficulty 



148 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 

of their task. Here was work for a patriot to do. The man who 
put an end to this would do a great deed for his country. The 
young Virginian surveyor resolved to be that man. 

Clark began his work by sending two young hunters north ot 
the Ohio as spies. On their return they told him of the condition 
of the British posts, which they had found very weak. Their report 
convinced him that with a small body of trained backwoodsmen he 
could not only put an end to the Indian raids, but could win for his 
country the whole vast northwest. 

Clark was not the man to hesitate when once he saw his way 
clear. Returning to Virginia, he made known to Patrick Henry, 
its patriotic governor, the daring plan he had in mind. The gover- 
nor warmly approved of it, and gave him full authority to enlist a 
force and take all the necessary measures, supplying him with 
money for the purpose. Thus equipped Clark, in the spring of 1 778, 
wade his way back to Kentucky, and at once took active steps to 
carry out his plan. 

Many were the difficulties, many the causes for delay, under 
which he labored, but in the end he found himself at the head of one 
hundred and fifty hardy, self-reliant hunters, men in whose hands 
the rifle was the most familiar implement and to whom adventure was 
the spice of life. These he proposed to lead for nearly one thousand 
miles through a wilderness bristling with foes. 

The journey began on the Ohio, down which the party floated 
on flatboats. At the Falls of the Ohio Clark built a log; hamlet. 
It was the foundation of what is now the great city of Louisville. 
Here some of his men left him, scared by an eclipse of the sun. But 
others joined him and when he started on again he had with him 
a hundred and eighty of the stalwart frontiersmen, armed with the 
long, small-bored rifle of the backwoods, a deadly weapon in their 
hands. 

Hamilton, the English lieutenant-governor of Detroit, was at 
that time actively engaged in the vile work of sending out parties of 
blood-thirsty savages against the settlers and rewarding them for 
their dreadful work. It was his purpose to try to capture "the 
rebel forts on the Ohio," with the belief that there were many loyal 
subjects of the king in that region who were kept in subjection by 
these strongholds. 

He was soon to have work enough to occupy him at home. 



Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 149 

Leaving their boats at the mouth of the Tennessee River, Clark 
and his men marched overland to Kaskaskia, the principal British 
post in that region. Its garrison, as he was aw^are, had been weak- 
ened to reinforce Fort Niagara. Still, the Creole militia and the 
British detachment that remained outnumbered his force, and they 




A SCENE ON THE PLAINS 
The brands of two neighboring ranchmen were similar enough to cause dispute about 

ownership. 

were m close alliance with the Indians around. His hope lay in a 
surprise. 

After crossing "the great prairie," he approached the town 
with the utmost caution, marching by night and hiding in the forest 
by day. It was on the evening of July 4th, the second anniversary 



15° Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 

of the natal day of American Independence, that he reached the 
vicinity of the place. Here his party lay concealed in the woods 
till evening fell, and then, under the veil of darkness, advanced 
silently upon the town. 

Fortune favored them. That evening a ball had been given by 
the British officers to the villagers, and dancing was going on blithely 
within the walls of the fort, where were gathered all the British 
and French capable of bearing arms. Reaching its vicinity without 
an alarm being given, Clark posted his men, walked boldly through 
the open doorway, and quietly took his station against the wall, 
like a spectator who had entered to watch the couples whirhng gayly 
in the dance under the light of blazing torches. Here he stood for 
some minutes unobserved, and then the hilarity of the dance was 
suddenly interrupted by a starthng war-whoop. An Indian who had 
been lying with his eyes fixed on the dancers had caught sight of 
this tall stranger, looked carefully over his dress and appearance, 
and had sprung to his feet with the wild alarm of his race. 

Instantly the dancing ceased, the men stood in blank dismay 
and confusion, the women ran to and fro in wild alarm. Clark 
stepped forward with smiling face. "Do not be alarmed," he 
quietly said; "go on with your dance, but remember that from 
this moment you dance under the rule of Virginia, not under that of 
England." 

The surprise was complete and resistance useless. Outside 
the fort could be seen the stern faces of the frontiersmen, the fore- 
most of them crowding into the gate. There was nothing for 
it but to submit. The Creoles were in terror, not knowing how 
they would be treated by their captors, who were not without just 
cause for revengeful feelings. But after giving them twenty-four 
hours for reflection, Clark called their chief men into the fort and 
told them that he was their friend, not their enemy, and that all 
he asked of them was to become citizens of the American republic. 
If they agreed to this they would have no cause to complain. The 
Creoles had no occasion for faithful allegiance to Great Britain, 
but rather for the contrary. They had, moreover, the French 
versatility of spirit. They, therefore, gladly accepted the propo- 
sition, and at once became enthusiastic in their loyalty to the States 
and to Clark as their representative. They went farther in their 
allegiance, sending messengers to their kinsmen at Vincennes, whom 



Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 151 

they persuaded to become allies of the new repubhc and to hoist the 
American flag. Another Creole settlement was as easily captured. 
Clark sent a detachment under Bowman to Cahokia, a settlement 
farther up the Mississippi, which at once submitted. The people 
were not willing allies of Great Britain, and readily agreed to be- 
come citizens of the new republic. 

Vincennes had been won over by the intercession of Gibault, 
a Catholic priest, who had advised Clark to remain at Kaskaskia 
while he, with some others, tried what persuasion could do. It 
was successful, as has been said. The inhabitants readily took 
the oath of allegiance to the United States. Gibault then sent 
five belts to the Indians on the Wabash: a white one for the French; 
a red one for the Spaniards; a blue one for the Americans, and 
for the Indians a green one as a peace offering, a blood-colored 
one if they preferred war. "The King of France has come to life," 
was his message. "We wish you to leave a very wide path for us 
to pass through your country to Detroit; for we are many in number 
and might chance to hurt some of your young men with our swords. " 

So far Clark had been far more successful than he had reason 
to hope. But danger now threatened him. As soon as Hamilton 
at Detroit heard of the bold movement of the Americans, he pre- 
pared to drive the invaders from the land. Gathering a force of 
soldiers and Indians, 500 strong, he started with a fleet of canoes 
on the Wabash, reaching Vincennes on December 17. The Creoles 
of the town refused to hght and the American officer who had been 
left in charge by Clark had the best of reasons for surrendering. 
Hamilton had marched up with warlike heedfulness, skilfully in- 
vested the fort and demanded a capitulation with the pomp and 
circumstance fitted to the occasion. His chagrin, therefore, must 
have been considerable when, having granted the honors of war 
to the garrison and drawn up his force to receive them, there marched 
out an officer and a single man, the sole and whole tenantry of the 
fort. Rarely had such a mountain of preparation brought forth such 
a mouse of result. Five hundred men had marched in all the pano- 
ply of war to the capture of Captain Helm and his army of one. 

Had Hamilton now marched against Kaskaskia his superiority 
in force would have given him an easy victory. But the season 
was late and the road long and difficult, and he decided that victory 
could well wait for a more favorable season. Unluckily, victory 



152 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 

is rarely disposed to wait on a man's will, as Governor Hamilton 
was destined to learn. Having come to this decision he dismissed his 
Indians to their tribes, sent back a part of his troops and held the 
fort with the remainder, saying that he would march upon Kaskaskia 
in the coming spring, and also seek to drive the Americans out of 
Kentucky. 

It was late in the winter when this news reached Colonel 
Clark, who had returned to Kentucky after the capture of Vincennes. 
With it came the tidings that the Wabash River had risen and over- 
flowed its banks, laying hundreds of square miles under water. 
A great shallow lake of chilly water surrounded Vincennes, which 
could be reached only by miles of wading. But Clark felt that he 
must act promptly if he was to act at all. Hamilton had only 
eighty white men with him, and now or never was the time. Gather- 
ing a force of one hundred and seventy Kentuckians, he set out on his 
difficult journey, through wet woods and over water-soaked prairies, 
the rains pouring down daily, so that every night they had to dry and 
warm themselves by blazing bivouac fires. It was a task demand- 
ing hardihood and severe training, especially after the drowned 
lands of the Wabash were reached, and it became necessary to wade. 
There were many miles to cross, ankle or knee deep and in 
places waist deep. For nearly a week they trudged through this 
shallow lake, finding here and there islands of dry land to rest or 
build their fires upon. But game was hard to find and their food 
ran so scarce that for two days they had to go hungry. 

A section of the party, forty strong, under Captain Rogers, had 
been sent by boat up the Wabash to the mouth of White River, 
taking two small cannon with them. At this point the waders 
and boatmen joined company, and for the rest of the route they 
dragged or rowed the boat. 

Much the worst part of the journey lay before them, a lake of 
water surrounding the fort four miles wide and deeper than any 
they had yet encountered. Some of the men hesitated, but Clark 
sternly ordered them on. He plunged boldly into the cold water, 
leaving one officer with orders to shoot any man who refused to 
follow. This was enough; they all waded in. It was a frightful 
walk. Much of the water came to their waists; some of it reached 
their necks; they had to hold their guns and powder above their 
heads to keep them dry. By the time land was reached some of them 



Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 153 

were so exhausted by the cold and fatigue that they fell prostrate 
and had to be raised and made to run up and down on the land before 
their animation was restored. The next morning, February lo, 
1779, they crossed the river in a boat which they found, and set out 
for the town of Vincennes. 

A Creole who was out shooting ducks fell into their hands, and 
from him they learned two matters of vital interest; first, that there 
were many Indians in the town; second, that the British did not 
dream of their approach. Their leader was now in a quandary. 
There was danger, if a sudden night attack should be made, that 
the Indians and townsmen would join the British in defense. This 
danger must be avoided if possible. He accordingly decided to 
send in his Creole captive, bidding him warn the Indians and 
French that he meant them no harm, his only hostile purpose being 
against the British. Those who stayed in their homes would 
not be molested. 

The news brought into town by the duck hunter made a com- 
motion. The French settlers at first did not know what to do. As for 
the Indians, they magnified the assailing force in their minds and 
sHpped from the town into the adjoining woods, leaving their 
British allies to shift for themselves. The settlers ended by taking 
the advice given them and retiring to their houses. 

The duck hunter had also been given a letter to Colonel Hamil- 
ton, telHng him that they had come to take the fort and that he 
would save trouble by surrendering it. The news utterly astounded 
the colonel. Where had these men come from .? It seemed impos- 
sible that they had crossed the icy lake. But wherever they came 
from, he had no notion of surrendering and sent back a defiance. 
Without loss of time Clark's men gathered around the fort and 
besieged it on all sides. Before morning they had thrown up small 
entrenchments from which to conduct their attack. Soon their 
two cannon were thundering at the fort and the riflemen were raining 
bullets over its walls. 

The next day there arrived a party of Indian warriors who, 
sent out by Hamilton, had been doing their bloody work in Kentucky. 
In their belts were the scalps of slain settlers. Marching carelessly 
toward the fort, full of their tale of triumph, they suddenly found 
themselves in the hands of the backwoodsmen. Furious at the 
sight of the encrimsoned scalps, some of which might have come from 



154 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 

the heads of their own friends, the men of the frontier were in no 
merciful mood. The savages, taken red-handed in their work, 
were cut down before the eyes of their friends in the fort. 

The siege hotly continued. The British had two small guns, 
but they became useless before the rifles of the hunters, who picked 
off every gunner that approached them. So deadly became the 
fire from the rifles of the backwoods-marksmen, that in the end no 
soldier dared approach a porthole. Further resistance was impos- 
sible, and Hamilton felt himself obliged to surrender. This ended 
the conflict. The British of Canada made no further attempt to 
reconquer the northwest. When peace was concluded this whole 
region became part of the United States, whose frontier became the 
Mississippi instead of the Alleghany range. This vast territory had 
been won solely by the courage and daring of George Rogers Clark 
and his small force of frontier riflemen. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HOW THE STATESMEN OF THE SOUTH 

LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF 

THE GREAT REPUBLIC 

Virginia, Maryland and the Union — Cavalier and Puritan ideas — The Southern 
Statesman — A weak Union — Maryland and the western claims — The Articles of 
Confederation — New York collects duties from its neighbors — The Father of the 
Constitution — The meeting at Alexandria — Madison and Washington — The 
Conventions at Annapolis and Philadelphia — Madison's plan — The Constitution 
as adopted — Contests for ratification — The great struggle in Virginia. 

IT is to the Southern States of Virginia and Maryland that we 
owe the first steps toward the formation of the Constitution 
of the United States, that mighty platform of political prin- 
ciples upon which this county has rested sohd and secure during 
more than a century of prosperity and adversity, war and peace, 
storm and calm. Upon that firm foundation has been built up 
a superb edifice, which has outlived a dozen tempests, growing 
firmer after every tornado, and steadily spreading wider and mount- 
ing higher until to-day the whole world gazes upon it with eyes of 
wonder and admiration. Viewed with contempt by the autocrats 
of Europe at its origin, it has grown to proportions which now 
all nations must respect, for the hand of Columbia is coming to 
hold in a firm grasp the reins of the world. It was, as we have 
said, the states of Virginia and Maryland that made the first move 
in the formation of the Federal Republic, and it was the statesmen 
of Virginia who had the chief hand in building the constitutional 
platform upon which this great republic rests. To these states 
and these statesmen, then, we must give credit as the foster-fathers 
of the American Union and Constitution. 

155 



156 Foundations of the Great Republic 

If we go back to old colony days, we find a marked distinction 
existing between the mental processes of the North and the South, 
or rather between those portions of these sections which we may 
specially designate as the Puritan and the Cavalier settlements. 
In Puritan New England the great subject of thought and discussion 
was theology. The purposes of God, the design of the universe, 
the destiny of man, the inner meaning of a multitude of texts of 
scripture — such were the subjects of most vital interest to the 
hard-headed tenants of many a New England village, who seemed to 
care much less about the conditions of the world they lived in than 
of those of the world to which they looked forward as their future 
place of residence. 

In the Cavalier settlements, on the contrary, the popular 
subject of discussion was government. Politics formed the hobby 
of the people, who were fully content to leave the affairs of the next 
world to be looked after by the ministers of the gospel, while they 
gave their attention to those of the present state of existence. The 
result was that, while many of the New Englanders became skilled 
theologians, the South gave rise to a large number of able statesmen 
and diplomats. It is not our purpose to discuss here which of these 
two classes of people was the more profitably occupied, but we may 
safely assert that the Southerner had chosen the more practical field 
of thought, and the one far the most likely to lead to immediate and 
demonstrable results. 

The outcome of this favorite mental exercise of the Southern 
gentleman, alike the man of the plantation and the man of law, 
the village magnate and the legislative member, is to be seen in the 
remarkable group of statesmen which the South had to offer in the 
stirring times of the conflict with England and the formation of the 
American Union. Never has such a period been distinguished by 
a more able body of experts in the service of government, and 
this country owes a deep debt of gratitude to the great men whose 
hands fashioned its ship of state, and set it afloat, solid and staunch 
in every part, fitted to swim safely over all the waves of faction, to 
pass unhurt through the severest storms of party or policy. 

The Revolution passed, a question of prime importance rose 
before the patriots of this country, and especially before those whom 
nature and education had made adepts in the art of government. 
The country emerged from the War of Independence in a deplor- 



Foundations of the Great Republic ^57 

able condition. It had won what it fought for, its freedom from 
British rule, but in the struggle it had thrown everything else 



MRS. JAMES MADISON 

(dolly PAYNE. ) 

During the burning of Washington in 1812 by the British, Doily 
Madison's heroism saved the Cabinent papers and a large portrait of 
Washington, which she carried with her from the White House. 

overboard, and it came out of the contest with httle left but debt and 
penury. It was penniless; it had the merest shadow of a govern- 



158 Foundations of the Great Republic 

ment; the feeble union which war had held together was ready 
to drop asunder with the coming of peace; state jealously prevailed; 
anarchy and disunion threatened; the new nation was no stronger 
than its weakest part, and all its parts seemed weak. As for the 
freedom gained by seven years of war, what would it be worth if 
the bond that held the States together were broken and each of 
them left to become the separate prey of some European power, 
as seemed very likely to be the final result ? Evidently patriotism 
and political skill of the highest quality were needed if the great 
American experiment were not to prove a sad and sorry spectacle of 
failure. Such was the outlook before our people in 1783, when, the 
treaty of peace signed and the army disbanded, the leaders in the 
new nation looked abroad, and saw nothing but bankruptcy, 
disunion and ruin impending over the new republic, which had been 
built and cemented with the blood of the dead and the valor of 
the living. 

Let us look back upon the picture which the American union 
presented in the period of stress and strain between 1776 and 1787 — 
the first date signalized by the Declaration of Independence, the 
second by the United States Constitution. Before the 4th of July, 
1776, there were only the United Colonies of America, in rebellion 
against the mother country. After that date the colonies took on 
the dignity of united States, free from allegiance to any mother coun- 
try, and fighting desperately for an acknowledgment of their 
independence. But their union was of the feeblest, their Congress 
absurdly devoid of power. It held together in some sort of fashion 
while the war continued, but the moment the war ended its innate 
weakness was exposed, and it proved to be joined by the weakest of 
bonds. 

In 1777 the Continental Congress had adopted what were 
grandiloquently termed "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union," but the war was near its end before these v/ere finally 
ratified by all the states. Maryland held out to the last, and would 
not join the Confederation until those States which claim.ed to extend 
the Mississippi or the Pacific had agreed to give up the lands 
claimed by them in the west to the general government. Only when 
this was done did Maryland sign, and by its determined stand that 
State laid the first strong plank in the platform of the American 
Union, by giving Congress sole jurisdiction over a vast area of wilder- 



Foundations of the Great Republic 159 

ness destined in the coming future to be formed into populous 
states. One by one these state claims were yielded. New York 
gave up hers in 1780, Virginia in 1784, Massachusetts in 1785, Con- 
necticut in 1786, South Carolina in 1787, North CaroHna in 1790, 
and Georgia in 1802. The greatest of these claims was that of 
Virginia, and it was the one most immediately in touch with and 
under the jurisdiction of the mother state, so that the "Old Domin- 
ion" made the most conspicuous sacrifice in giving up her western 
territory in the cause of the country at large. 

To return to the Confederation, it never deserved its proud 
title of a " Perpetual Union," nor, in fact, of a union at all. Each 
state retained the powers and the position of a sovereign common- 
wealth, and the central government had to move as the states 
pulled the strings. It was not a government in any full sense, but a 
temporary expedient imperfectly adapted to use during war, but 
quite unsuited to times of peace. 

The Articles of Confederation gave Congress no power to lay 
taxes or to enlist soldiers. In this lay their specially weak point. 
The Continental Congress had to ask the states for men and money, 
and wait till they were ready to send them. It could make 
treaties, but could not enforce them; could borrow money, but could 
not repay it; could declare war, but could not call out an army. 
Money it made during the war, tons of it — paper money; but when 
the war ended this was hardly worth its weight. There was a 
heavy war debt, but no cash to pay it. The states would not 
supply the cash. They were jealous of each other and of Congress, 
and proposed to remain independent. "We are," said Washington, 
"one nation to-day and thirteen to-morrow." That told the story. 
No actual union existed, and it was very doubtful if in the end 
there would be one strong nation or thirteen weak ones. There 
certainly could be no strong nation under the existing "Articles." 

It was a desperate state of affairs. Maryland had taken the 
first step toward giving power to Congress, by insisting that the 
great western wilderness should be placed under its control. In 
time this would yield cash to carry on the government; but as yet it 
had few settlers and the states were slow in keeping their promise. 

There was only one thing that prevented the states from break- 
ing loose utterly from each other. This was their fear of England 
and Europe. Left alone they might become the prey of the country 



i6o Foundations of the Great Republic 



from which they had broken loose. Their only safety lay in union, 
and this their statesmen could not help seeing. Yet jealousy and 
local interest were stronger than common sense, and many of them 
acted like independent countries. We find Maryland bidding for the 
commerce of Virginia by lowering the duties on imported goods. 
Later on reason prevailed and a commercial league was formed be- 

^_____ _________^ tween these two states, 

I * land another between 

Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey. The most 
threatening of these 
troubles rose between 
New York and her 
neighbors to right and 
left. At one time we 
find New Jersey com- 
plaining that New 
York State was levying 
duties on her imports 
into the port of New 
York City. But the 
nearest approach to 
disunion came in 1787, 
when the Legislature 
of New York passed a 
bill levying duties upon 
the local commerce 
between New Jersey 
and Connecticut and 
the city of New York. 
New jersey supplied 
New York City with 
the fruits and vegeta- 
bles grown on its fer- 
tile plains. Connecti- 
cut was the source of its firewood. There was a bitter complaint 
when these states found that they were treated as foreign coun- 
tries and forced to pay duties on their goods at the New York 
custom house. New Jersey retaliated as well as she could by 




JAMES MADISON 

(1751-1836.) Two terms, 1809-1817. 

" The Father of the Constitution," the most scholarly President the 
South has produced. 



Foundations of the Great Republic i6i 

laying a tax of £^o a month on the light-house on Sandy Hook. 
The whole affair showed that, so far as these states were con- 
cerned, the union was practically at an end. Elsewhere it held 
feebly together, but each state was laying its own rate of duties 
and in other ways acting for itself alone. Local interests were 
coming into dominance to an alarming extent. 

Such was the state of affairs between the close of the Revolution 
and the convening of the Constitutional Convention. Congress 
still held its sessions, but it was weak and despised. The strong men 
of the country no longer sought membership, the members were 
careless about attending its sessions, the laws it passed were of 
little importance and httle heed was paid to them. It earnestly 
begged for the power to lay a national duty on imports. To this 
most of the states in time agreed, but unanimous consent was neces- 
sary and that could not be had. This failure made many patriots 
despair. Washington, to whom independence was due, feared that 
all was at an end. 

In those perilous times the American Union was like a ship at 
sea which had long been tossed in the waves and battered by storms, 
and which was staggering onward, aleak and dismantled, without a 
pilot at the helm or a light-house in the offing. It was in this des- 
perate contingency that the great statesmen of Virginia took the 
wreck in charge and steered it safely into port. And chief among 
these we must place the name of James Madison, the " Father of the 
Constitution." 

Madison was one of the first of those who saw the need of 
giving new powers to Congress. In 1781 he advocated that the 
Articles of Confederation should be changed, and Congress enabled 
to enforce its laws. In 1783 he was zealous in favor of a plan by 
which Congress would be given for twenty-five years the power to 
lay and collect customs duties. He wrote an address to the states 
advocating this plan, a paper so able that this alone placed him in 
the front rank of American statesmen. But it was not until 1785 
that the first loop-hole of escape from the difficulty was opened, and 
this is the way it came about: 

Between Virginia and Maryland lay the navigable waters of 
Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. Independent states, as 
they virtually were, the question of rights of commerce and naviga- 
tion upon these waters became important. Disputes had arisen; 



i62 Foundations of the Great Republic 

some agreement was necessary. Madison at that time, a member of 
the Virginia Legislature, proposed a meeting of commissioners, to be 
held at Alexandria, in March, 1785, for the settlement of this difficulty. 
Out of small seeds great trees arise. The discussion of this local 
question led the way to the great one of the Union of the States. 

The commissioners met. The commercial problem at issue 
was satisfactorily settled. Then the members began to talk over 
questions of general policy and the condition of the country at large. 
Near by was Mount Vernon, the home of Washington, and many of 
them visited him and asked his views on the situation. Among 
those from Virginia was George Mason, a statesmen of much 
abihty, and one who was strongly influenced by Washington's 
far-seeing views. Mason was appointed to report the doings of 
the convention to the Virginia Legislature. It had gone in its dis- 
cussions far beyond its original purpose, and recommended a 
uniformity in duties on imports, in rules of commerce and in 
forms of currency between the states. 

This far-seeing action of the commissioners was approved by 
Maryland, and Virginia quickly followed with a similar approval. 
Maryland broadened the scope of the original purpose by proposing 
that Pennsylvania and Delaware should be invited to cooperate in 
the making of a ship-canal between Delaware and Chesapeake 
Bays. When the report was brought before the Legislature of 
Virginia the discussion upon it broadened into the expediency of 
investing Congress with adequate power over commerce, a subject 
upon which Madison spoke earnestly and feelingly. The dissolu- 
tion of the union, he argued, would be the signal for standing 
armies in each of the states, burdensome taxes, clashing systems of 
foreign poHcy, and an appeal to the sword in every petty squabble. 
He spoke strongly, for he felt strongly, and he laid plainly before the 
members the perils which confronted them and all Americans. Wash- 
ington, being appealed to for his opinion, answered in as strong terms, 
saying: "If the states individually attempt to regulate commerce, 
an abortion or a many-headed monster would be the issue." 

The final result of the discussion was a resolution by Madison, 
to the effect that all the states should be invited to send delegates to 
a meeting at Annapolis in the following year, to take steps toward 
a general American system in matters of commerce and trade. 
Such was the second step in the great work before the statesmen of 



Foundations of the Great Republic 163 

America. So far only Virginia and Maryland had acted. Now 
the whole thirteen states were invited to take part. 

The convention met on the i ith of September, 1786. But it was 
evident that the real nature of the exigency was not appreciated by the 
states, for only five of them — less than a majority of the whole — ■ 
sent delegates. These were the four Middle States, and Virginia, 
which alone represented the South. The Eastern States had failed 
to respond to the request. Evidently a minority could not take 
binding action, and the convention adjourned, after passing a resolu- 
tion caUing for a similar meeting at Philadelphia in the following 
May. By the time this date approached the several states had been 
made to see the importance of the work proposed, and when the 25th 
of May arrived there assembled in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 
the most dignified and momentous assemblage ever known in the 
history of our country. It included delegates from all the states except 
Rhode Island, and embraced not only the ablest men in the country, 
but some of the ablest statesmen any land had ever produced. 
Washington, the "Father of his Country," presided. Among its 
members were Hamilton of New York, Franklin and Morris of Penn- 
sylvania, Madison, Mason and Randolph of Virginia, Rutledge and 
the two Pinckneys of South Carolina, and men of high ability from 
other states. 

Virginia, to which state the convention was due, held the leading 
position in its membership. Washington, its noblest son, was its 
president, Madison, the promoter of the convention, played so impor- 
tant a part that he afterward became known as the " Father of the 
Constitution." In fact, we must give the South credit as the great 
agent in the formation of the American Union. In all that was done 
it took the lead, and the Constitution as it stands to-day is very 
largely the work of the able statesmen of that section of our country. 

Madison prepared himself for the work before him by an extended 
study of confederacies, ancient and modern ahke. He came to the 
conclusion that no confederacy could be successful which acted on, 
states only, and not on individuals as well. This he expressed in a 
letter to Washington, before the convention met. He declared that 
the individual sovereignty of the states could not be reconciled with 
the aggregate sovereignty. Some middle ground must be found, in 
which both the states and the people would have a voice. A simple 
republic, under the circumstances, was an impossible idea. He 



i64 Foundations of the Great Republic 

proposed a legislature of two branches, one of many members elected 
for a short term, the other of few members, for a long term. This, 
with some modifications, was the Virginia plan of government, as 
presented in the convention by Edmund Randolph, and it became 
the basis of the deliberations which continued for four months, 
before the Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. 

When the convention met, the members in general had no clear 
idea what it was to do. It had been called for the Regulation of 
commerce and the currency, and many held that it had no power 
except to revise the Articles of Confederation. Madison had broader 
views, and Hamilton agreed with him. To attempt to revise the old 
Articles would be a waste of time and strength. They were hopelessly 
inadequate, and they must be thrown aside and a new system formed. 
This opinion, after some discussion, was accepted, and the conven- 
tion closed its doors and began its work. For four months it con- 
tinued its labors, while the public remained in ignorance of what was 
being done. Then the doors were flung open and the convention 
came forth bearing as the fruit of its mighty labors the completed 
Constitution of the United States, the greatest state paper in the 
history of the world. No record was kept of its proceedings, but 
Madison, its most deeply interested member, made daily notes which 
were aftei-ward published. To those we are chiefly indebted for 
our knowledge of what took place. 

The Constitution proved to be a series of compromises between 
conflicting interests. The small states were afraid of being thrown 
into the shade by the large ones. This fear was overcome by giving 
them equal representation in the Senate. The people had not been 
represented under the Confederacy. They now gained a voice 
through the House of Representatives. A compromise was made 
with the strong slavery interest by counting every five slaves as equal 
to three white men in fixing the basis of representation. The Con- 
federacy had no executive head to carry out its decrees. One was 
provided in the President. The Supreme Court was added as a 
balance wheel, by whose aid the Constitution could be made always 
to run true, no law being valid which this Court decided was not in 
accordance with the Constitution. 

The Constitution, as wrought out behind closed doors in that 
memorable convention in Independence Hall, was by no means 
yet the law of the land. It was the work of less than forty men, who 



Foundations of the Great Republic 165 

affixed to it their signatures. Some of the members themselves 
refused to sign it, among them George Mason, of Virginia. It had 
still to pass the ordeal of the states, with their strong trend toward 
separate powers, their varied interests, their diversity of ideas. 
Nothing but the absolute necessity of a stronger government could 
have carried it through. The wisest of the people saw before 
them the Constitution on one side or anarchy and ruin on the other, 
and dread of the unknown future drove many to accept what they 
would otherwise have bitterly opposed. We find even such ardent 
Americans as Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry unyieldingly 
opposed to it, a fact which speaks loudly for the hostihty which 
it excited. 

The greatest contests over the ratification of the Constitution 
took place in two states, Virginia and New York. Here they were 
so earnest and vigorous as to become matter of history. In New 
York George Chnton was the powerful opponent, Alexander 
Hamilton the strenuous advocate, of the Constitution. Hamilton 
won, after a long and ardent debate, in which he defeated his op- 
ponents by gaining the support of the people. In Virginia as bitter 
a contest took place, a number of the ablest statesmen of the South 
being pitted against each other in the convention called to deal with 
the question of ratification. Among these we find such famous 
names as those of Patrick Henry, James Monroe, and George 
Mason on the one side, warm patriots all, but unyieldingly hostile 
to the new instrument. James Madison and John Marshall were 
the chiefs of those massed on the side of the Constitution. 

It was a remarkable scene, one with few counterparts in Ameri- 
can history, that in which orators like these were arrayed against 
each other in criticism or defense of the most marvelous production 
of American political genius. Certainly it was a mighty struggle 
that enlisted such men as Henry, whose fiery eloquence had sounded 
the tocsin bell of the Revolution; Mason, one of the ablest debaters 
of the "Old Dominion;" Madison and Monroe, both afterward 
to become Presidents of the United States; and Marshall, the greatest 
Chief- Justice that ever presided over the United States Supreme 
Court. 

The opposition to the Constitution was based on the argument 
that it gave too much power to the federal government. Mason 
contended that it tended toward kingship in the executive, and 



i66 Foundations of the Great Republic 

Henry declared that it had "an awful squint toward monarchy." 
Strongest of these was Henry, the fiery Revolutionary orator. The 
speeches he made against the Constitution were full of impassioned 
eloquence, and worthy of his best days. Madison, his chief opponent, 
had none of his passion, but he had a strong basis for argument, 
and dealt with it in an earnest and convincing manner, answering 
all objections with a logical reasoning and a zealous eloquence that 
had a powerful effect upon his hearers. He had a strong supporter 
in Marshall, one of the finest legal minds this country has ever 
produced, and destined to become the great expounder of Consti- 
tutional law in later years. 

For days the fervent contest went on, speech after speech was 
made, sparkling with brilliancy or solid with reasoning, while hun- 
dreds listened with absorbed intentness to the great debate. In 
the end Madison and Marshall carried the day, not alone against 
the eloquence of their opponents, but against a public opinion at first 
adverse to the Constitution. Their side was the strong one, since 
whatever might be said, the absolute nead of a central government 
"with power to act" could not be set aside. There loomed before 
the country the vital alternative of the Constitution or disunion, and 
the Constitution won. Virginia ratified it on the 25th of June, 1788, 
being the tenth state to fall into line. Nine states were needed to 
make it the law of the land, and the ninth had been secured on June 
21, by the vote of New Hampshire. The last to come into line 
were North Carolina, on November 21, 1789, and Rhode Island, on 
May 29, 1790. 

But before these late dates the United States of America had 
been fully organized under its new Constitution, Virginia had given 
her noblest son to serve as President of the new Union, and two 
others to act as members of the Cabinet — ^Thomas Jefferson as 
Secretary of State and Edmund Randolph as Attorney-General— 
and the great Federal "Ship of State" was afloat with sails set and 
banners streaming on the stormy ocean waves of time. 



CHAPTER IX. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE IDEAL 
AMERICAN, SOLDIER, STATES- 
MAN, AND PRESIDENT 



Washington's parents — In the French War — Marries and settles — Commander-in- 
chief in the Revolution — The great feat at Trenton — Valley Forge and Yorktown 
— Refuses a crown and kingdom — Plans for canals to the Ohio — Washington's 
concern about the country — Presides over the Constitutional Convention — 
Elected the first President — The troubles of office — Called to the army again — 
Sudden illness and death. 




MONG the multi- 
tude who in differ- 
ent countries and 
times have won fame, a 
few stand out so far above 
the rest that their Hves 
constitute distinct eras of 
the world's progress. By 
them we measure our 
growth; by them we test 
our advance or decline. 
We no longer judge them, 
but rather judge ourselves 
by them, by the extent to 
which we can appreciate and understand them. An age in which 
they are honored is glorious; a generation by which they are 

167 



MARY BALL AFTERWARDS THE MOTHER OF 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



1 68 George Washington 

not esteemed is contemptible. Among the few thus truly 
great is Washington, the ablest and greatest son, not only 
of the South, but of the American continent. A thousand times 
has the story of his noble life been told; yet never were men so eager 
to hear it as now. His character has endured every test; his fame 
is secure. "It will be the duty of the historian in all ages," says 
Lord Brougham, "to omit no occasion of commemorating this 
illustrious man; .... and until time shall be no more will a 
test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue 
be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of 
Washington." 

Two centuries ago Virginia was almost an unexplored wilder- 
ness; but the climate, the soil, the rivers, bays, mountains, valleys, 
all combined to render it one of the most attractive spots upon our 
globe. Two young brothers, Lawrence and John Washington, 
were lured by these attractions to abandon their home in England, 
and seek their fortunes in this new world. They were both gentle- 
men. Lawrence was a fine scholar, a graduate of Oxford; John 
was an accomplished man of business. 

The two brothers had purchased a large tract of land about 
fifty miles above the mouth of the Potomac, and on its western banks. 
John built himself a house, and married Anne Pope. Augustine, 
his second son, inherited the paternal homestead. Augustine's 
first wife, jane Butler, as lovely in character as she was beautiful 
in person, died, leaving three little motherless children. The 
disconsolate father, in the course of years, found another mother for 
his bereaved household. He was singularly fortunate in his choice. 
Mary Ball was everything that husband or child could desire. She 
was beautiful in person, intelligent, accomplished, energetic and 
prudent, and a warm-hearted Christian. Augustine and Mary 
were married on the 6th of March, 1730. On the 22d of 
February, 1732, they received into their arms their first-born child. 
Little did they dream, as they bore their babe to the baptismal font 
and called him George Washington, that that name was to become 
one of the most memorable in the annals of time. 

When George was ten years of age his father died, leaving him 
to his mother's care. How nobly she discharged her task his later 
character reveals. Throughout her life he was devoted to her and 
her least wish was to him a command. 



George Washington 169 

Mrs. Alexander Hamilton tells the story that, when George 
Washington was in the meridian of his fame, a brilliant party was 
given in his honor at Fredericksburg, Va. When the church-bell 
rang the hour of nine his mother rose and said, "Come, George, it is 
nine o'clock: it is time for us to go home." George, like a dutiful 
son, offered her his arm, and they retired. Mrs. Hamilton admits, 
however, that after Washington had seen his mother safely home he 
returned to the party. 

We have elsewhere told the story of Washington's early life, — 
his service as a surveyor in the wilderness when but sixteen years 
of age, his memorable journey to the French forts when twenty-one, 
his subsequent career as a soldier and his final capture of Fort 
Duquesne. In those years of service he was laying the foundation 
of his great future career. There is an anecdote which is worth 
teUing here, as showing how fully the Legislature of Virginia appre- 
ciated the remarkable endurance and judgment shown by Governor 
Dinwiddie's young envoy to the French. The Virginia House of 
Burgesses was in session at Williamsburg when Washington 
returned. Modestly, and unconscious that he would attract any 
attention, he went into the gallery to observe the proceedings. The 
Speaker chanced to see him, and, rising, proposed that "The thanks 
of this House be given to Major Washington, who now sits in the 
galler}^, for the gallant manner in which he has executed the im- 
portant trust lately reposed in him by his excellency, the governor. " 

Every member of the House rose to his feet; and Washington 
was greeted with a simultaneous and enthusiastic burst of applause. 
Embarrassed by the unexpected honor, and unaccustomed to public 
speaking, the young hero endeavored in vain to give utterance to his 
thanks. Out of this painful dilemma the eloquent speaker helped 
him as generously as he had helped him into it. "Sit down. Mr. 
Washington," said he, in his most courteous manner, "your mod- 
esty equals your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language 
that I possess." Nothing could be more neat or skilful than this 
double stroke, which not only reUeved Washington, but paid him 
at the same time the highest compliment that could be bestowed. 

We shall not repeat the well-known story of how Washington, 
with his handful of Virginians, saved the British troops under the 
vain-glorious Braddock from utter destruction. Placing themselves 
behind trees, they fought the Indians in their own wild-wood way, 



1 70 



George Washington 



and checked their pursuit of the panic-stricken British regulars, who, 
as Washington wrote, "Ran Hke sheep before the hounds." 

Braddock's defeat rang through the land as Washington's 
victory. The provincials, who, submitting to military authority, 
had allowed themselves to be led into this valley of death, proclaimed 
far and wide the precautions which Washington had urged, and the 
heroism with which he had rescued the remnant of the army. 

The Indians, elated 
by their victor}^, at 
once began their usual 
course of death and 
ruin among the white 
settlers. As a result a 
force of about seven 
hundred men was 
raised and placed un- 
der the command of 
Washington, to protect 
the scattered villages 
and dweUings of this 
broad frontier. For 
three years, while the 
war with the French 
was being fought else- 
where, W a s h i n gton 
gave all his energies 
to this arduous enter- 
prise. It would re- 
quire a volume to re- 
cord the awful scenes 
through which he 
passed during these 
three years, in deahng 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

The greatest gift of the South to our Country. 
(1732-1799.) Two terms, 1789-1797. 

with the savage foe whom the French on the Ohio aided and 
abetted in their merciless raids. At length, in November, 
1758, a second expedition was sent against Fort Duquesne, 
Washington again taking part in it. It would have failed, as the 
former did — this time through an excess of caution and delay in the 
leader^had not Washington been given permission to lead a party 



George Washingtorl 171 

through the woods upon the fort. Upon his approach the French 
fled and the contest for the valley of the Ohio was at an end, George 
Washington had completed the first era in his career by capturing 
for his country this vast and fertile realm. 

Washington was now twenty-six years of age. The beautiful 
estate of Mount Vernon had descended to him by inheritance. On 
the 6th of January, 1759, he married Mrs. Martha Custis, a lady 
of great worth and beauty. Washington was already wealthy; and 
his wife brought with her, as her dower, a fortune of one hundred 
thousand dollars. After the tumultuous scenes of his youth, he 
retired with his bride and her two children to the lovely retreat of 
Mount Vernon, where he spent fifteen years of almost unalloyed 
happiness. He enlarged the mansion, embellished the grounds, 
and by purchase made very considerable additions to his large estate, 
to whose cultivation he devoted himself with the ardor of a man to 
whom agriculture was the chief end of life. 

The Revolution came, and with it began the second era in 
Washington's public career. The day of Lexington and Concord 
arrived; patriots, shot down within sight of their homes, lay bleeding 
on the sod; the people were infuriated and were rushing to arms; 
Congress looked around for a man to lead its gathering armies. It 
had not long nor far to look. Among its own members was the man 
it wanted. The Cincinnatus of Mount Vernon was the one soldier 
in America to whom all instinctively turned in the emergency. 
His splendid service in the French and Indian war had not been 
forgotten, and without hesitation they selected Colonel Washington 
for the position of commander-in-chief. 

Washington accepted the dignity with the true spirit of a patriot. 
He wanted no money for doing his duty. It was for his country, 
not his personal benefit, that he took up arms. This was shown in 
his patriotic words to Congress. " I beg leave to assure the Congress 
that, as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept 
this arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and 
happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an 
exact account of my expenses. Those, I doubt not, they will dis- 
charge. That is all I desire," 

To his wife, the object of his most tender aflFection, he wrote 
that it was his greatest affliction to be separated from her, but that 
duty called and he must obey. He said that he could not decHne 



172 George Washington 

the appointment without dishonoring his name, and sinking himself 
even in her esteem. 

It may well be questioned if there was any other man on the 
continent of America who could have discharged with success the 
task which lay before Washington, and have come victoriously out 
of the terrible struggle in which, with heart and soul, he engaged. 
The biography of Washington during the seven years that followed 
is the history of the Revolution. Where not present in person, he 
was present in spirit, and it was to his directing hand and mihtary 
genius that final success was due. If Virginia had not possessed a 
Washington, it may well be that America would not have won 
freedom at that time. 

It was a terrible task which Washington had undertaken. The 
ability to win battles was only one of the faculties he needed. The 
power to bring success out of defeat; to endure starvation, calumny, 
desertion; to face the enemy without food, without ammunition, 
almost without men — all this demanded a man with far higher 
quahties than those of the mere soldier. He had to make an army, 
to make conditions, to make funds, to hold starving men together 
in the face of defeat — and all this and more he did. 

His brilliant success at Boston was followed by a depressing 
defeat at New York. By the time he had crossed New Jersey and 
forded the Delaware in the face of persistent pursuit by a victorious 
army, he had but a few thousands of worn-out men left, and the 
cause of the colonies seemed hopelessly lost. Washington was one 
of the few who did not despair. 

" My God, General, how long shall we flee ^ " asked General Reed. 

Washington replied, "We shall retreat, if necessary, over every 
river of our country, and then over the mountains, where I shall 
make a last stand against our enemies." 

Fortunately this last resort of desperation was not needed. 
Recrossing the Delaware on the dark and chill night of Christmas, 
1776, with the fragment left from his late army, Washington marched 
through wind and storm to the British post at Trenton, and there 
by a sudden and successful blow turned the tide of fate. Cornwallis, 
in alarm, rushed on the victorious Americans. At the close of a cold 
winter day he appeared before their lines at Trenton. "To-morrow, 
at break of day, I will attack them," he said. "The rising sun 
shall see the end of the rebellion." 



George Washington i73 

The rising sun heard the thunder of Washington's guns at 
Princeton. The daring American had out-maneuvered the con- 
fident CornwaUis, and again snatched victory out of defeat. Thus 
ended the most briUiant mihtary movement in Washington's career. 
Its effect was tremendous when considered in comparison with the 
small forces engaged. It inspired the country, it brought men to 
Washington's camp, it put the triumphant British on the defensive, 
and it radically changed the opinion of Europe. Before that 
Christmas night the nations of Europe had looked upon the Ameri- 
can war for freedom as hopeless. Now they saw success in the air, 
and were filled with admiration for Washington as one of the great 
captains of the age. 

We do not propose to tell the story of Washington's career in 
the Revolution. Our readers all know it. A few pictures of critical 
periods are all we need present. A second time, in the winter of 
1777-78, all looked black for the colonists. Philadelphia, the 
capital city, was in the hands of the British army, and Washington's 
despairing force lay starving and freezing at Valley Forge. Again 
a period of dread and discouragement had come, in which the voice 
of calumny was seeking to blacken Washington before Congress 
and deprive him of his command. But the coming spring told 
another tale. An alliance had been made with France, and the 
British commander at Philadelphia, in fear of being caught be- 
tween the American army and a French fleet, hastily evacuated 
the city and fled for New York, barely escaping a disastrous 
defeat at Monmouth through the treachery of one of Washington's 
most trusted aids. 

From this time on the war languished in the North, and the 
British turned their attention to the South, which they fancied to be 
far less capable of successful resistance. Savannah and Charleston 
were taken, Georgia and the Carolinas were overrun, and it seemed 
as if that section of the Union was lost. Lost it was not, for it had 
able and brilHant men to defend it. How they did so we have al- 
ready told. 

As the spring of 1781 opened, the war was carried into Virginia. 
Richmond was laid in ashes, and a general system of devastation and 
plunder prevailed. The enemy ascended the Chesapeake and the 
Potomac with armed vessels. They landed at Mount Vernon. The 
manager of Washington's estate, to save the mansion from pillage and 



174 George Washington 

flames, furnished them with abundant suppHes. Washington was 
much displeased. He wrote to his agent: 

"It would have been a less painful circumstance to me to have 
heard that, in consequence of your non-compliance with their request 
they had burned my house and laid the plantation in ruins. You 
ought to have considered yourself as my representative, and should 
have reflected on the bad example of communicating with the enemy 
and making a voluntary offer of refreshments to them, with the view 
to prevent a conflagration." 

Lord Cornwallis was now at Yorktown, in Virginia, a few miles 
from Chesapeake Bay. There was no force in his vicinity seriously 
to annoy him. But Washington was master of the situation, and saw 
the opportunity, in conjunction with the allies from France, to make a 
bold movement for the capture of CornwaUis and his men. An army 
of six thousand men, under Count Rochambeau, had been sent by 
France to aid the American cause. A French fleet was in the Atlantic. 
Washington availed himself of their aid. He succeeded in deceiving 
the English into the behef that he was making great preparations for 
the siege of New York, and thus prevented them from sending any 
aid to Yorktown, while by rapid marches he was hastening to Vir- 
ginia. Early in September Lord Cornwallis, as he arose one morn- 
ing, was amazed to find himself surrounded by the bayonets and 
batteries of the Americans. At about the same hour the French fleet 
appeared, in invincible strength, before the harbor. Cornwallis was 
caught. There was no escape; there was no retreat. Neither by 
land nor by sea could he obtain any supplies. Shot and shell soon 
began to fall thickly into his lines. Famine stared him in the face. 
After a brief period of hopeless conflict, on the 19th of October, 1781, 
he was compelled to surrender. Seven thousand British veterans 
laid down their arms. One hundred and sixty pieces of cannon, with 
corresponding military stores, graced the triumph. 

When the British soldiers were marching from their entrench- 
ments to lay down their arms, Washington thus addressed his troops: 
" My brave fellows, let no sensation of satisfaction for the triumphs 
you have gained induce you to insult your fallen enemy. Let no 
shouting, no clamorous huzzaing, increase their mortification. Pos- 
terity will huzza for us. " 

This glorious capture roused renewed hope and vigor all over the 
country. The joyful tidings reached Philadelphia at midnight. A 



George Washington 



^75 



watchman traversed the streets, shouting at intervals, "Past twelve 
o'clock, and CornwaUis is taken!" Candles were lighted; windows 
thrown up; figures in night-robes and night-caps bent eagerly out to 




THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON RECEIVING LAFAYETTE 

Previous to his departure for Europe, in the fall of 17S4, the Marquis de Lafayette repaired 

to Fredericksburg to pay his parting respects to Washington's mother 

and to ask her blessing. 

catch the thrilling sound; shouts were raised; citizens rushed into 
the streets, half clad — they wept; they laughed; they danced with joy. 
The news flew upon the wings of the wind, nobody can tell how; 
and the shout of an enfranchised people rose, like a roar of thunder, 
from our whole land. With such a victory, republican America 
would never again yield to the aristocratic government of England. 



176 George Washington 

When the news of it came to the ears of Lord North, the British 
prime minister, he threw up his hands and cried in wild despair, 
"Oh, God! it is all over." 

Over it was. Early in May, 1782, the British Cabinet opened 
negotiations for peace. Hostilities were, by each party, tacitly laid 
aside. Negotiations were protracted in Paris during the summer and 
the ensuing winter. Early in the following spring the joyful tidings 
arrived that a treaty of peace had been signed at Paris. The intelli- 
gence was communicated to the American army on the 19th of April, 
1 783, — ^just eight years from the day when the conflict was commenced 
on the Common at Lexington. Late in November the British 
evacuated New York, entered their ships, and sailed for their distant 
island. Washington, marching from West Point, entered the city 
as his vanquished foes departed. America was free and independent. 
Washington was the savior of his country. 

After an affecting farewell to the officers of the army, Washington 
set out for his Virginia home. At every town and village he was 
received with love and gratitude. At Annapolis he met the Conti- 
nental Congress, before which he was to resign his commission. It 
was the 23d of December, 1783. All the members of Congress, and 
a large concourse of spectators, were present. His address closed 
with the following words: 

"Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from 
the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to 
this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here 
offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of 
public life.' 

We have briefly outlined the story of the great Virginian as a 
soldier. We have next to deal with him as a statesman. Occupied 
as he was, during so many years of his life, with military affairs, he 
was as keenly alive as any man in America to the political develop- 
ment and industrial advancement of the country, and no man held 
saner or wiser views. During the years between the end of the 
French war and the beginning of the war for freedom he was 
repeatedly elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was 
no speech maker, but he showed himself here an earnest thinker 
and adviser. As early as 1769 he saw that the British policy 
might lead to war, and took a prominent and radical part in the 
struggles against Governor Dunmore, the king's right hand in 



George Washington 177 

Virginia. Petitions to the king he opposed; why should Americans 
beg for what was theirs by right ? " Shall we after this, " he wrote, 
"whine and cry for relief ?" 

But it was after the Revolutionary War that the genius of Wash- 
ington as a statesman was first fully revealed. He came out of that 
war as the leading man of the country. It was well for America 
that he was not a C?esar or a Napoleon, but an American patriot, 
whose only ambition was to set his country free. A word from him 
would have made him king if he had craved a throne. The country 
was in the hands of the army, and a company of its officers wrote 
to him asking him to accept the crown and estabHsh an American 
kingdom. 

Washington's reply is worthy of being engraved in letters of 
gold. History presents us no record of any other conqueror, under 
like circumstances, flinging away ambition in favor of patriotic duty. 
He wrote in reply to the letter he had received: "With a mixture 
of great surprise and astonishment, I have read with attention the 
sentiments you have submitted to my perusal. Be assured, sir, 
no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful 
sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing 
in the army, as you have expressed, and I must view with abhorrence 
and reprehend with severity. ... I am much at a loss to con- 
ceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an 
address, which to me seems big with the greatest mischief that can 
befall my country. . . . Let me conjure you, if you have any 
regard for your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or regard 
for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind, and never com- 
municate, as from yourself or any one else, a sentiment of the like 
nature." 

After that, as may well be conceived, there was no further 
suggestion of crowning Washington as king. The only kingdom 
he was willing to rule over was his farm; the only throne he was con- 
tent to fill was his armchair at Mount Vernon; he was more 
interested in the rotation of crops and the planting of trees than in 
the balance of power and the control of affairs of state. Never was 
there a man less carried away by the fever of ambition. 

Yet Washington, in his retirement at Mount Vernon, did not 
cease to be a patriot and a statesman. His eye was on his country 
and he was in close rapport with all that took place. He was in 



178 George Washington 

constant correspondence with its public men. The study of the 
poHtical side of history was a subject of his earnest attention, and 
the material development of his country was ever in his mind. In 
1784 he made a tour to the west, beyond the Alleghanies, his main 
object being to see if the headwaters of the Potomac and James 
Rivers could be connected by canals with the streams flowing into 
the Ohio. He recommended that a complete survey should be made 
of the land between these streams, saying that if such a water con- 
nection could be made, it would be of immense advantage to the 
country. This advice was accepted by the Legislature of Virginia. 
Thus it is to Washington we owe the first suggestion of the great sys- 
tem of internal improvements which has done so much for the 
material interests of the American people. 

In addition to this, Washington showed great interest in the 
advancement of education. The establishment of a national uni- 
versity was with him a favorite purpose, and a school known later as 
Washington College was founded by him. During life he gave much 
aid to poor scholars, and in his will left a legacy of four thousand 
dollars to aid the education of indigent children in Alexandria. 
The shares in the new canal companies, voted him by the Virginia 
legislators, he devoted to the cause of education. 

O ... 

But the subject in which Washington was most warmly con- 
cerned was the disturbed political condition of the country. The 
old confederation was fast falling to pieces and no steps had been 
taken towards a new union. Unless something were done to 
strengthen it the confederation could not much longer hold 
together, and the states would be left to face separately the greed 
and power of Europe. Hostile feeling was arising between the 
states themselves; custom houses were rising on their borders; and 
the Congress which professed to act for them was left bankrupt 
and powerless, almost a thing of contempt. All this we have treated 
in the last chapter, and need only say here that Washington had 
great reason to be concerned for the future of the country whose 
existence was so largely due to him. 

In March, 1785, the commissioners appointed by Virginia and 
Maryland to meet at Alexandria and consider how commerce should 
be regulated on Chesapeake Bay, took occasion to visit Mount 
Vernon and talk the matter over with Washington; and no doubt 
he had much to do with putting into their minds larger views than 



George Washington 179 

the mere question of tariff charges between Virginia and Maryland. 
The result of their meeting, as we have seen, was a convention at 
Annapolis the next year to consider the general question of commerce 
between all the states; and this led directly to the great convention 
of 1787, to form a new union between the states with a Constitution 
suitable for its government and control. 

With all these movements Washington had much to do. He 
kept a close supervision over them, and his advice was constantly 
sought. When the constitutional convention met at Philadelphia 
he was one of the delegates from Virginia — sent there sorely against 
his will. His objections were strong, he had hoped to spend the 
remainder of his life in retirement, but the pressure upon him was so 
great that he felt obliged to yield. 

On the assembling of the convention, Washington was at once 
and unanimously elected its presiding officer. As such he took no 
part in the debates, other than to offer hints from time to time, but 
these seem to have been very suggestive. Thus when some one 
proposed to restrict the standing army of the United States to 5,000 
men, Washington presented the sarcastic amendment that any 
enemy should be forbidden to invade this country with more than 
3,000 men. No doubt his influence, even though unsustained by 
oratory, had much to do with the formation of the Constitution. 
When completed, indeed, many parts in it were not to his liking, 
but he looked on it as "the best Constitution that could be obtained 
at that epoch," and used all his influence to have it accepted by the 
states. That his influence greatly aided in this there can be no 
question, for Washington at that time was almost worshiped by the 
people of the new republic. 

When the time came to elect a President for the new Union 
there was no more question concerning the candidate than if this 
country had been a kingdom and Washington the heir to the throne. 
The office of President had been "cut to fit the measure of George 
Washington," and no one else was thought of- for it. His practical 
wisdom, solid judgment, and great influence were needed to start 
the new country upon its untried course, and though he was very 
anxious to be left at home, he could not resist the solicitations of his 
friends. The day of election came andGeorge Washington was chosen, 
by the unanimous vote of the electors, and probably as the choice of 
every man in the nation, as the first President of the United States. 



lOO 



George Washington 



The new government, under the new Constitution, was a 
success from the start. That it would have been such a success, 
with any other man than Washington at the head of affairs, may be 
doubted. His influence in preventing party contests in the early 
days of the government was supreme. He stood between the parties, 
balanced faction against faction, divided his Cabinet between the 
parties and did his utmost to prevent dissension while the new gov- 
ernment was settling into the traces. His first term ended, he was 
again unanimously elected, but it was to a new state of affairs. The 
passions of the party leaders could no longer be controlled, and Wash- 
ington himself was virulently and shamefully attacked. He pro- 
claimed neutraHty between France and Great Britain, and the party 
in sympathy with France was furious. His support of Jay's treaty 
stirred up new fury. He was accused of drawing more than his 
salary; some spoke of him as the "stepfather of his country;" it 
was even hinted that the guillotine should be set up for his benefit. 
Washington declared in 1793 that he "had never repented but once 
having slipped the moment of resigning his office, and that was every 
moment since." Yet these attacks came from a small faction of 
the poHticians; the people were as devoted to Washington as ever, 
and he would have been unanimously elected in 1796 if he had not 
had quite enough of office holding. 

The virulent attacks upon him were not the only source of 
trouble to the President. The dissensions in his Cabinet gave him 
more immediate concern. Jefferson and Hamilton, his ablest and 
most trusted advisers, were at sword's point politically, and their 
hostile relations proved a source of deep distress to the calm and 
judicious mind of Washington. In consequence of all this he 
welcomed the close of his official fife. Before withdrawing from it, 
however, he issued a "Farewell Address" in which his fine powers 
as a statesman were conspicuously displayed. It emboaied the 
results of his long experience in public affairs, and advised a wise 
system of policy for the government of the country, especially warn- 
ing the people from letting themselves be drawn into the maelstrom 
of foreign complications. For the vigor of its language, the soundness 
of its maxims, the wisdom of its counsels, and its force and elevated 
sentiments, this paper is unrivaled, and it was everywhere received 
with the deepest admiration, some of the states printing and 
publishing it with their laws. His last word to the country thus 



George Washington 



i8i 




WASHINGTON MONUMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

(Height, 555 feet) 



182 



George Washington 



spoken, Washington gladly laid down the burdens of office and 
returned once more to the comforts of domestic life. 

Washington's military life had been laid down, as he supposed 
forever, in 1783. Yet in 1798 he was again called to the head of the 
army. The difficulties with France had grown to the verge of war. 




THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 
From photograph made by Edyth Carter Beveridge. 

Actual war broke out in 1799 upon the ocean. On land an army of 
ten thousand men was authorized and Washington was appointed 
to its command. He accepted, with the provision that he should 
not be called into the field until necessity demanded. Luckily for 
him the necessity never came, but he was miserably fretted during 



George Washington 183 

the short remainder of his Hfe by the quarrels of politicians about 
the selection of officers for the new army. 

He was still engaged in mihtary preparations when death came 
suddenly and unexpectedly upon him. The 12th of December, 1799, 
was a damp and chilly day. Washington took his usual round on 
horseback to his farms, returning late in the afternoon, wet with 
sleet, and shivering with cold. Though the snow was clinging to his 
hair behind when he came in, he sat down to dinner without chang- 
ing his dress. The next day three inches of snow whitened the 
ground, and the sky was clouded. Washington, feeling that he had 
taken cold, remained by the fireside during the morning. As it 
cleared up in the afternoon, he went out to superintend some work 
upon the lawn. He was then hoarse, and the hoarseness increased 
as night came on. He, however, took no remedy for it, saying, 
"I never take anything to carry off a cold. Let it go as it came." 

He passed the evening as usual, reading the papers, answering 
letters, and conversing with his family. About two o'clock the next 
morning, Saturday, the 14th, he awoke in an ague-chill, and was 
seriously unwell. At sunrise his physician. Dr. Craig, who resided 
at Alexandria, was sent for. In the meantime he was bled by one 
of his overseers, but with no rehef, as he rapidly grew worse. Dr. 
Craig reached Mount Vernon at eleven o'clock, and immediately 
bled his patient again, but without effect. Two consulting physi- 
cians arrived during the day; and, as the difficulty in breathing and 
swallowing rapidly increased, venesection was again attempted. It 
is evident that Washington then considered his case doubtful. He 
examined his will, and destroyed some papers w^hich he did not wish 
to have preserved. 

His sufferings from inflammation of the throat and struggHng 
for breath, as the afternoon wore away, became quite severe. Still, 
he retained his mental faculties unimpaired, and spoke briefly of 
his approaching death and burial. About four o'clock in the after- 
noon he said to Dr. Craig, "I die hard; but I am not afraid to go. 
I believed, from my first attack, that I should not survive it: my 
breath cannot last long." About six o'clock, his physician asked 
him if he w^ould sit up in his bed. He held out his hands, and was 
raised up on his pillow, when he said, "I feel that I am going. I 
thank you for your attentions. You had better not take any more 
trouble about me, but let me go off quietly. I cannot last long. " 



184 George Washington 

He then sank back upon his pillow, and made several unavailing 
attempts to speak intelligibly. About ten o'clock he said, "I am 
just going. Have me decently buried, and do not let my body be 
put into the vault until three days after I am dead. Do you under- 
stand me ?" To the reply, "Yes, sir," he remarked, "It is v^ell." 
These were the last words he uttered. Soon after this he gently 
expired, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 

At the moment of his death Mrs. Washington sat in silent grief 
at the foot of his bed. "Is he gone ?" she asked, in a firm and 
collected voice. The physician, unable to speak, gave a silent 
signal of assent. " 'Tis well, " she added, in the same untremulous 
utterance. "All is now over. I shall soon follow him. I have no 
more trials to pass through." 

On the 1 8th his remains were deposited in the tomb at Mount 
Vernon, where they still repose; and his name and memory live on 
immortal, forever enshrined in the hearts of a grateful people. 

" How sleep the brave who sink to rest 
By all their country's wishes blest! 
By fairy hands their knell is rung; 
By forms unseen their dirge is sung; 
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray. 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay; 
And Freedom shall awhile repair 
To dwell, a weeping hermit, there." 



CHAPTER X. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON ADDS NEW STARS 
TO THE SOUTHERN GALAXY 

The constellation of the South — The discovery of the Mississippi — La Salle's famous 
exploration — What the treaties did — Louisiana in l8oi — Thomas Jefferson at 
home and in college — The Declaration — Governor of Virginia — Minister to 
France — Secretary of State — Vice President — Elected President — His Demo- 
cratic ways — Combats aristocratic customs — The question of the Mississippi — - 
War in the air — The work of Monroe and Livingston — The President and 
Congress approve the Louisiana Purchase — The Lewis and Clark expedition — 
Three new States of the South — Jefferson's life at home — Rescued from 
misfortune — Dies on the anniversary of Independence. 

WHEN, in 1783, the treaty of peace with England was signed, 
and the United States of America emerged from the tem- 
pest of war as a free and acknowledged nation, only five 
stars shone in the galaxy of the South — Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The years to come were 
to more than double the number of stars in this splendid constel- 
lation, and it was to Thomas Jefferson, the planter statesman of 
Virginia, more than to any other man, that the South owed the 
three great commonwealths which lie upon the Mississippi's 
western shores. For it was he who, by the Louisiana Purchase, 
obtained for this country the vast area from which these states 
were carved. 

During the very stress of the War for Independence the peopling 
of the eastern side of the great river began and slowly went on. 
Daniel Boone and his fellow adventurers had then recently crossed 
the mountain backbone of the Atlantic States and made themselves 
new homes in the wooded wilderness west of this broad upland 
barrier. Before the nineteenth century came in Kentucky and 

185 



i86 



New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 



Tennessee had grown from counties into states, while farther south 
the flow of population was beginning to fill up the great fertile 
realm of western Georgia, from which, in years to follow, were to 
be carved the rich agricultural States of Alabama and Mississippi. 
But the vast region west of the mighty stream was still foreign 
territory. It had belonged to France; it was now held by Spain; 
soon it was to be restored to France again. The American pioneers 




FERNANDO DE SOTO, DISCOVERER OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER 

looked across the broad river of the west, and saw foreign forts and 
foreign faces rising before them in hostile defiance. The situation 
was one that might soon grow intolerable. Let us look back in 
history and see what gave rise to this situation. 

We have already told how Fernando de Soto, in 1541, reached 
and gazed upon the mighty river which we know as the Mississippi, 



New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 187 

Beneath its waters his body was laid in death, as if to hold it captive 
for Spain. But it was by the French that the great stream was 
first explored. The missionary Marquette descended it in 1673, to 
the mouth of the Arkansas, in company with the famous explorer 
Joliet. In 1680 the missionary Hennepin ascended it to the Falls 
of St. Anthony. But the man who truly won its shores for France 
was the great explorer Robert de la Salle. The career of this most 
daring of adventurers was one full of the elements of romance. It 
was he who first discovered the Ohio River, the claims to which 
afterward gave rise to the great colonial war between England and 
France. This discovery was made about 1669. In 1679 La Salle 
launched the first vessel ever seen dn the Great Lakes. Going 
forward to 1682 we find him afloat in frail canoes on the Mississippi, 
trusting himself to the unknown waters of that mighty stream, 
which bore him and his men downward to where its waves pour 
their great flood into the Gulf of Mexico. Here, on the 9th of 
April of that year, he raised the banner of France and claimed 
for his country and its king the great river and its neighboring 
lands. He named the country Louisiana, after Louis XIV of 
France. Much more happened to the explorer than we have space 
to tell, and, like de Soto, he paid with his life for his work, being 
murdered by his mutinous followers after he had set out to make 
his way on foot to far-off Canada. 

Thus it was through the exploits of her adventurous sons that 
France won her claim to the lands bordering on the Mississippi. 
This claim was a broad one, covering the whole valley of the 
Mississippi east and west, from the Alleghany to the Rocky Moun- 
tains. But all she held was the lir"^ of the river, at long intervals 
along which forts were built and settlement; made. There was one 
of these where St. Louis now stands, another on the site of Natchez, 
and others on the Gulf and on the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers. 
Mobile was founded in 1701 and New Orleans in 1708. Thus 
France was the first to settle the region of the Gulf States, and 
Louisiana in a few years gained several thousand inhabitants. 

We must go on now to 1673, in which year the war between the 
French and the English colonists, and between England and France 
elsewhere, ended in a treaty of peace, by which France lost all her 
possessions in America except a few small islands. The territory 
in the Ohio Valley, concerning which the war had broken out, was 



1 88 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 

now given up to England. England also gained Florida, trans- 
ferred to her by Spain in exchange for Cuba and the PhiHppine 
Islands, which EngHsh fleets had captured during the war. The 
City of New Orleans and the territory between the Mississippi and 
the Rocky Mountains were still held by France, but these she 
handed over to her ally, Spain, to repay that country for the loss of 
Florida. Thus France gave up all her hold on North America, 
which was now divided between England and Spain, — England 
holding all east and Spain all west of the Mississippi River. 

In 1783, twenty years later, another treaty of peace was made, 
this time between England and the triumphant colonists. This 
made a new and important change in the dominion over America. 
The republic gained the great region lying between the Atlantic 
and the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes, but England gave 
Florida back to Spain. And as Florida was held to extend by a 
strip of land fifty miles wide to the Mississippi, the southern section 
of our country was cut off from the Gulf, between which and the 
territory of the United States lay half a hundred miles of foreign 
land. It was thus that matters stood in 1801, the first year of the 
nineteenth century. Then a new and alarming deal was made. 
By a secret treaty, Spain gave Louisiana back to France, and the 
ambition of Napoleon gained a new field of exercise on the Ameri- 
can continent. Before relating what followed, we must take up the 
story of Thomas Jefferson, one of the greatest statesmen of the 
South, and the man into whose hands this great question came for 
settlement. 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the people of the 
United States may be said to have been divided into two classes — - 
those who thought Thomas Jefferson the greatest and wisest of 
living men, and those who believed him the worst and most dan- 
gerous. The French Revolution, that great uprising of the masses 
against the oppression of despotic power, had then divided public 
opinion throughout the whole civilized world. Jefferson was at 
the head of the party which sympathized with the common people, 
and advocated their cause. The opposite party, shocked and 
horrified at the excesses committed by the revolutionists in France, 
looked upon everything democratic with the greatest fear and aver- 
sion. These extremes of opinion make it difficult, even at this day, 
to get a fair and moderate opinion of Jefferson. But whether the 



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New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 189 

principles for which he stood be approved or condemned, their 
success at least cannot be denied. Jefferson was the pioneer of 
democracy, the apostle of the sovereignty of the common people, 
which from his time to the present has become every year more 
firmly rooted in American poUtics; and whether it be for good or ill, 
it is for this that he will be remembered in the centuries yet to come. 

Jefferson, as we have said elsewhere, descended from one of the 
early settlers of Virginia who was a member of the original House 
of Burgesses, the first legislative body in America. His statesman- 
ship thus came to him by hereditary descent. His father, Peter 
Jefferson, owned a plantation of fourteen hundred acres near where 
Charlottesville, Virginia, now stands. When he was born, in 1743, 
this was a wilderness. Few white settlers lived within many miles 
of the manor house, which stood on a swell of land on the slopes of 
the Blue Ridge giving it a splendid outlook over mountains and 
forest. It was a spacious cottage, a story and a half high. On the 
lower floor were four large rooms and a wide hall. Above there were 
good chambers and a large garret. Two huge chimneys on the 
outside gave the mansion a picturesque appearance. This house 
was burned in 1770 and soon after Jefferson built himself a new 
home on the top of a hill five hundred and eighty feet high, which 
had long been a favorite resort of himself and his friend Dabnev 
Carr. Monticello ("Little Mountain") it was called, and this name 
was given to the handsome mansion which he built on its summit. 
No house in America commands a nobler view. 

The story of the early life of Jefferson must be briefly told. Bv 
nature he was inclined to be serious and reflective, and in school 
was very studious. The best teachers Mere found for him, and in 
1760 he entered William and Mary College, at Williamsburg. In 
college and in the town he was a favorite. He lived somewhat 
expensively, kept fine horses, but was a close and earnest student. 
Making the law his profession, he began its practice in 1767, and 
was soon after elected to the Legislature. In 1772 he married a rich 
and handsome young widow who brought him an estate of forty 
thousand acres. Thus rich, learned, able as a thinker and as a 
writer, with a well-disciplined mind and poHshed ar'dress, Jefferson 
was fitted to play a prominent part in the stirring events then at 
hand. 

When the First Continental Congress was convened in 1775* 



igo 



New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 



Jefferson was one of its members — -the youngest of them all but 
one. But, young as he was, he quickly took a leading position in 
that body. He seldom spoke, not being gifted with powers of 
oratory, but he had long been known as an able writer and a firm and 
earnest patriot. His modesty and suavity of manner, and the 
frankness and force with which his views were expressed, won over 

even his opponents, and it is 
said that he had not an 
enemy in Congress. 

When the time came for 
writing the "Declaration of 
Independence," Jefferson was 
chosen for the momentous 
task, as the best equipped man 
for the purpose either in Con- 
gress or in the country. The 
paper prepared by him, in 
which few changes were made 
by his fellow members of the 
committee, still stands as one 
of the ablest assertions on 
record of the inherent rights 
of man, and especially of his 
right to resist oppression and 
tyranny. 

In 1779 Jefferson was chosen 
governor of Virginia. He was 
then thirty-six years of age. 
The British were now pre- 
paring to strike their heaviest 
blows upon the South. Georgia 
had fallen helpless into the 
hands of the foe; South Caro- 
lina was invaded, and Charleston threatened. At one time the 
British officer, Tarleton, sent a secret expedition to Monticello to 
capture the governor. Scarcely five minutes elapsed after the 
hurried escape of Jefferson and his family before his mansion 
was in the possession of the British troops. A detachment of 
the army of Cornwallis, in their march north from the Carolinas, 




ROBERT DE LA SALLE 

Explorer of the Mississippi. 



New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 191 

seized another plantation which he owned on the James River. 
The foe destroyed all his crops, burnt his barns and fences, 
drove off the cattle, seized the serviceable horses, cut the throats 
of the colts, and left the whole plantation a smouldering, blackened 
waste. Twenty-seven slaves were also carried off. "Had he carried 
off the slaves," says Jefferson with characteristic magnanimity, 
"to give them freedom, he would have done right." 

In 1784 Jefferson was sent by Congress to represent the new 
republic in France, succeeding Dr. Franklin in that important 
embassy. He returned in 1789, having passed live years in that 
country, then on the verge of a revolution that was destined to 
overthrow the worn-out institution of feudalism and despotic govern- 
ment, and bury it in a torrent ol blood. He came back with a warm 
sympathy for the people of France, whose suffering he vividly 
realized. He returned before their excesses began. A democrat 
in grain, he had seen enough of the pomp and folly of couits. 

Appointed Secretary of State by President Washington, he 
accepted that high post, and on the 1st of March, 1790, set out 
for New York, which was then the seat of government. He went 
by way of Richmond and Alexandria. The roads were horrible. 
At the latter place he took a stage, sending his carriage round by 
water, and leading his horses. Through snow and mud, their 
speed seldom exceeded three or four miles an hour by day, and one 
mile an hour by night. A fortnight, of great fatigue, was con- 
sumed in the journey. Occasionally Jefferson relieved the mo- 
notony of the dreary ride by mounting his led saddle-horse. At 
Philadelphia he called upon his friend Benjamin Franklin, then in 
his last illness. 

Jefferson had seen so much of the pernicious influence of kings 
and courts in Europe that he had become an intense republican. 
Upon his arrival in New York he was much surprised at the freedom 
with which many persons advocated a monarchical government. 
He writes: 

"I cannot describe the wonder and mortification with which 
the table conversation filled me. PoHtics were the chief topic ; and a 
preference of a kingly over a republican government was evi- 
dently the favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not be, nor 
yet a hypocrite, and I found myself, for the most part, the only 
advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among the 



19^ New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 

guests there chanced to be some member of that party from the 
legislative houses." 

Washington, however, did not think that such views were 
widely entertained, and wrote: "As to the idea of transforming this 
government into a monarchy, I do not believe there are ten men in 
the United States, whose opinions are worth attention, who enter- 
tain such a thought." 

However this be, there was certainly a strong diversity of 
sentiment in the Cabinet, especially between Hamilton and Jefferson, 
the former the leader of the Federal party and the advocate of a 
strong central power, the latter the chief of the Democratic-Repub- 
Hcan party, as the opposing party was called, and the supporter of 
the doctrine of State rights. So hot did the contest become that 
Jefferson retired from the Cabinet early in Washington's second term, 
greatly against the President's wish. In 1796 he was the candidate 
of his party for President, but the Federalists won — John Adams 
being elected. Jefferson became Vice-President — the two offices 
at that time being divided between the two leading candidates. 

This new honor, which he was far from desiring, rendered it 
necessary for him to leave his home at Monticello for a few months 
each year to attend the sessions of Congress. His numerous letters 
to his children show how weary he had become of party strife, with 
what reluctance he left his home, with what joy he returned to it. 

In June, 1800, Congress moved from Philadelphia, which for 
ten years had been the capital, to Washington. The new seat of 
government, literally hewn out of the wilderness, was a dreary place. 
Though for a number of years workmen had been employed in that 
lonely, uninhabited, out-of-the-way spot, in putting up the public 
buildings, there was nothing as yet finished; and vast piles of stone 
and brick and mortar were scattered at great distances from each 
other, with swamps or sandbanks intervening. 

Mrs. John Adams, who had seen the residences of royalty in 
Europe, — Buckingham Palace, Versailles, and the Tuileries, — 
gives an amusing account of their entrance upon the splendors of 
the "White House." In trying to find Washington from Baltimore, 
they got lost in the woods. After driving for some time, bewildered 
in forest paths, they chanced to come upon a black man, whom 
they hired to guide them through the forest. "The house," she 
writes, "is upon a grand and superb scale, requiring about thirty 



New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 



193 



servants to attend, and keep the apartments in proper order. The 
fires we are obliged to keep, to secure us from daily agues, are 
another very cheering comfort; but, surrounded with forests, can 
you believe that wood is not to be had, because people cannot be 
found to cut and cart it ?" 

In 1800 Jefferson was again the candidate for President. His 
party — that of the people — had now grown greatly in strength, and 
the rule of the Feder- 
alists was at an end. 
Adams was defeated, 
and the Democratic 
candidates, Jefferson 
and Aaron Burr, were 
elected. As they re- 
caived an equal num- 
ber of electoral votes 
the contest was thrown 
into the House of Rep- 
resentatives, by which 
Jefferson was chosen 
for President, Burr for 
Vice-President. 

The news of the 
election of Jefferson 
was received in most 
parts of the Union with 
the liveliest demon- 
strations of joy. He 
was the leader of the 
successful and rapidly- 
increasing party. His 
friends were found in 
every city and village (1743-1826. Two terms, 18OI-I8O9.) 

in the land. They had been taught to believe that victory for the 
opposite party would be the triumph of aristocratic privilege and 
of civil and religious despotism. On the other hand, many of the 
Federalists turned pale when the tidings reached them that Thomas 
Jefferson was President of the United States. Both the pulpit 
and the press had taught them that he was the incarnation of all 
13 




THOMAS JEFFERSON, 

Author of the Declaration of Independence and one of the framerg of 

the Constitution. 



194 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 

evil, — an infidel, an atheist, a scoffer at all things sacred; a leveler, a 
revolutionist, an advocate of mob government — false ideas set afloat 
by political hostility. 

Jefferson was exceedingly simple in his tastes, having a morbid 
dislike of all that court etiquette which had disgusted him so much 
in Europe. Washington had ridden to the halls of Congress in 
state, draw^n by six cream-colored horses. Jefferson, on the morning 
of his inauguration, rode on horseback to the Capitol in a dress of 
plain cloth, v^ithout guard or servant, dismounted without assistance, 
and fastened the bridle of his horse to the fence. Very probably he 
had allowed his mind to become so thoroughly imbued with the con- 
viction that our government was drifting towards monarchy and aris- 
tocracy, that be felt bound to set the example of extreme democratic 
simplicity. The political principles of the Jeffersonian party now 
swept the country, and the new President exerted an influence 
which had not been exceeded by that of Washington himself. 

It may be well, at this point, to revert to some important 
results of Jefferson's democratic views in his earlier life. In his 
younger days two of the moth-eaten aristocratic institutions of 
England prevailed in Virginia, brought over and established there 
by the Cavalier settlers. One of these was the law of primogeniture, 
under which the oldest son inherited the family estate, and the 
younger were obliged to shift for themselves as best they could. 
The second was that of taxation for the support of the Episcopal 
Church — the established church in Virginia as in England. Dis- 
senters there, as in the mother country, were obliged to pay for the 
support of a church which they did not attend, and with whose 
views they were not in harmony. Both these institutions of aristoc- 
racy were vigorously assailed by Jefferson, and through his influence, 
the laws supporting both were removed from the statute books of 
Virginia. 

Returning now to the topic considered in the first part of this 
chapter, that of the foreign control of Louisiana, we may repeat 
what was there said, that in 1801 — the opening year of Jefferson's 
term as President— Napoleon acquired this province from Spain 
by a secret treaty. This was not made known until 1802, and its dis- 
covery aroused an uproar in the United States. The question of the 
control of the mouth of the Mississippi by Spain had long been 
making a stir in the West, beginning as soon as settlements had 



New Stars in the Southern Galaxy iQS 

extended along the Ohio to the greater stream. This feehng grew 
stronger as the number of settlers increased. It became intense when 
the Spanish authorities at New Orleans manifested a hostile policy. 
That a foreign power should hold the mouth of such a river as the 
Mississippi and prevent the free use by the West of its natural 
channel to the sea was intolerable. But when it was learned that 
Louisiana had been secretly handed over to France and that we had 
such an aggressive personage as Napoleon Bonaparte to deal with, 
the sentiment arose that the Mississippi must be made free to 
American commerce, even if we had to fight for it. There was a 
strong war spirit in the air when the Spanish commandant at New 
Orleans, still in control in October, 1802, issued an order closing 
the port of New Orleans to American vessels. For seven years the 
people of Kentucky and Ohio had been floating their tobacco and 
flour, bacon and hams, down the Mississippi in rude flat-boats, and 
depositing this material in New Orleans warehouses, to await the 
vessels to carry it to the West Indies or the Atlantic coast. Now 
the right of deposit was cut off' and the frontier settlers began to 
take down their old rifles and clean and load them for the coming 
alternative of right or fight. 

When the news of the Spanish action reached Congress, the 
Federalists in that body strongly advocated war, and demanded 
that the President should seize a suitable place of deposit on the 
Mississippi and call out a sufficient force to guard it. The Demo- 
cratic party opposed this, but passed a bill calling out eighty 
thousand militia and providing for the building of arsenals in the 
West. The military spirit ruled strong in the land. 

Jeff"erson, however, wisely looked upon diplomacy as better 
and cheaper than war. If the island of New Orleans could be 
bought, and the navigation of the two branches of the river which it 
controlled be set free, the difficulty would be at an end. His 
friend and fellow Virginian, James Monroe, was sent to France as 
a special envoy for this purpose, commissioned to off"er two millions 
of dollars for this area. Robert R. Livingston, then Minister to 
France, was negotiating with Talleyrand for the same purpose 
when Monroe reached Paris. Talleyrand did not want to sell. 
He hoped to see France win back her old power in America, 
Believing that Talleryand was playing with him, Livington wrote 
directly to Napoleon, and with a quick and unlooked for result. 



196 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 

Just at that time the First Consul of France had too much on 
his hands at home to wish to add to it the care of distant colonies. 
War clouds were gathering thickly around him; he wanted money 
more than colonies; the English people were demanding that 
Louisiana should be attacked; if he delayed he might lose both 
the land and its value. He asked what America would give for the 
whole of Louisiana. At that critical interval Monroe reached Paris, 
and joined Livingston. After some debate upon the unexpected 
offer, the price was fixed at fifteen million dollars. Neither Living- 
ston nor Monroe had any authority to close with such an offer. 
Monroe had been sent to purchase an island. He and his fellow were 
offered a huge slice of a continent. But there was no time to lose; 
it was now or never; without hesitation they closed with the offer, 
and sent the President word of what they had done, not knowing 
how their precipitate action might be received in America. 

The news of what had been done put Jefferson in a quandary. 
He had proposed to buy an island; his agents in Paris had contracted 
for a domain almost of continental extent. The two millions which 
the Senate had authorized him to spend were increased to fifteen. 
Jefferson construed the Constitution strictly and in his view this 
instrument gave him no authority to purchase foreign territory. 
Yet the offer was an immense temptation. The evils which might 
result if France held Louisiana no man could foresee. The good 
which might follow if this vast region belonged to the United States 
it was easy to conceive. If the Constitution could not break it 
might bend. Jefferson's common sense got the better of his scruples. 
He determined to accept the treaty, and to call Congress together and 
ask them to ratify his action. If necessary to the purchase the 
Constitution could be amended. 

Congress was called and the debate became hot, the old Federal 
party strongly opposing the purchase. The stupendous addition 
to the national debt of fifteen million dollars troubled them sorely. 
Writers and orators sought to show the people how enormous a sum 
this was. Never had so vast a price been paid for a wilderness. 
Pile it up, dollar on dollar, and the pile of silver dollars would be more 
than three miles high. Hire a laborer to shovel it into carts, and 
though he filled sixteen a day, it would take him two months to 
finish the job. And for whose benefit was it .? The South and 
West. What would they be willing to pay toward the debt ? But 



New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 19 7 

opposition was of no avail. The mass of the people were wise 
enough to see the vast advantage in the purchase. Congress became 
their mouthpiece, the treaty was ratified, and on the 20th of Decem- 




SIGNING THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE TREATY 

Reading from left to right, the figures represent Livingston, Monroe and Marbois 
A Sculpture exhibited at St. Louis, 1904. 

ber, 1803, Louisiana became a part of the United States. Dollars 
instead of bullets had been fired to obtain it, and a bloodless victory 
was gained which no warlike triumph could have surpassed. 



198 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 

What was Louisiana ? Nobody knew. Travelers had gone 
a short distance into it; hunters and trappers had gone farther; 
but very httle was known concerning it, and the most extravagant 
stories about its marvels were told. There were tribes of giant 
Indians; there was a mountain of salt a hundred and eighty miles 
long and forty- five miles wide; there was an immense grassy prairie 
whose soil was too rich for trees to grow, and which was filled with 
vast herds of buffalo; there were tall bluffs carved by nature into 
the shape of ancient towers. Fact and fable were so mingled in these 
stories that the President decided to find out the truth, and two 
adventurous Virginians, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William 
Clark, were sent with a party to explore the vast unknown region. 
Clark was a brother of George Rogers Clark, who, with his gallant 
Kentuckians, had won the northwest from England during the 
Revolutionary War. Setting out on May 14, 1804, the party crossed 
the plains and the mountains, continuing their journey until they 
reached the Pacific. Returning in 1806, after a journey of 8,000 
miles, replete with strange adventures, they had a remarkable story 
to tell of the extent, the wonders and the natural wealth of the 
country, and after their story had been told there was no longer any 
question of the value of the great purchase which Thomas Jefferson 
had made for the United States. 

The Louisiana Purchase, as was said in Congress, was of special 
benefit to the South and West. The South gained from it the 
territory out of which three splendid States were afterward made — - 
Louisiana, which entered the Union in 18 12; Missouri, whose time 
came in 1821; and Arkansas, whose advent was delayed till 1836 — 
States full of splendid possibilities, Louisiana with her sugar 
and fruits, Arkansas with her cotton and corn, Missouri with her 
iron and cattle — to name a few out of their many valuable products. 
We shall say nothing more of them here, other than to repeat that 
these were the three stars which the foresight of Thomas Jefferson 
added to the galaxy of the South. 

Another Presidential election came in 1804. Jefferson was 
reelected President with wonderful unanimity; George Clinton 
being chosen for Vice-President. Jefferson was sixty-two years of 
age when, on the 4th of March, 1805, he entered upon his second 
term of office. Our relations with England were daily becoming 
more complicated, from the British insistence on the right to stop 



New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 199 

any of our ships, whether belonging to either the commercial or 
the naval marine, and to take from them any sailors whom they felt 
disposed to claim as British subjects. The course England pursued 
rendered it almost certain that war could not be avoided. Jefferson 
humanely did everything in his power to prevent the Indians from 
taking any part in the war, if it should come. The British, on the 
contrary, were disposed to rouse them to deluge the frontiers in 
blood. Strange as it may now seem, the measures of government 
to redress these wrongs were virulently opposed. But notwith- 
standing the strength and influence of the opposition to Jefferson's 
administration, he was sustained by the general voice of the 
nation. 

In the year 1808 Jefferson closed his second term of office, and 
James Madison succeeded him as President of the United States. 
In the following terms the retiring President expressed to a friend 
his feelings upon surrendering the cares of office: 

"Within a few days I retire to my family, my books, and farms; 
and, having gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends, still 
buffeting the storm, with anxiety indeed, but not with envy. Never 
did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such reHef as I shall on 
shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the 
tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight; 
but the enormities of the times in which I have Hved have forced me 
to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boister- 
ous ocean of political passions. I thank God for the opportunity of 
retiring from them without censure, and carrying with me the most 
consoling proofs of public approbation." 

Jefferson's subsequent life at Monticello was very similar to 
that of Washington at Mount Vernon. His mornings he devoted to 
his numerous correspondence; the hours from breakfast to dinner 
he passed in the shops and on the farms; from dinner to dark he 
devoted to recreation and friends; from dark to early bedtime he read. 
He was particularly interested in young men, advising them as to 
their course of reading. Several came and took up their residence 
in the neighboring town of Charlottesville, that they might avail 
themselves of his Hbrary, which was ever open for their use. 

Toward the latter part of his life, from a series of misfortunes, 
Jefferson became deeply involved in debt, so that it was necessary 
for him to sell a large portion of his estate. He was always profuse 



200 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 

in his hospitality. Whole families came to Monticello with poaches 
and horses, — fathers and mothers, boys and girls, babies and 
nurses, — some of them remaining three or even six months. One 
family of six persons came from Europe, and made a visit of ten 
months. After a short tour they returned, and remained six months 
longer. Every day brought its contingent of guests. Such hospi- 
tahty would speedily consume a larger fortune than Jefferson pos- 
sessed. His daughter, Mrs. Randolph, was the presiding lady of 
this immense estabhshment. The domestic service required thirty- 
seven house-servants. Mrs. Randolph, upon being asked what was 
the greatest number of guests she had ever entertained any one 
night, replied, "I beheve fifty." 

In the winter Jefferson had some little repose from the crowd 
of visitors. He then enjoyed, in the highest possible degree, all that 
is endearing in domestic life. It is impossible to describe the love 
with which he was cherished by his grandchildren. One of them 
writes, in a letter overflowing with the gushing of a loving heart, 
"My Bible came from him, my Shakespeare, my first writing-table, 
my first handsome writing-desk, my first Leghorn hat, my first 
silk dress; what, in short, of all my treasures did not come from him ^ 
My sisters, according to their wants and tastes, were equally thought 
of, equally provided for. Our grandfather seemed to read our hearts, 
to see our individual wishes, to be our good genius, to wave the fairy 
wand, to brighten our young lives by his goodness and his gifts. " 

Another writes: "I cannot describe the feelings of veneration, 
admiration, and love that existed in my heart toward him. I 
looked on him as being too great and good for my comprehension; 
and yet I felt no fear to approach him, and be taught by him some of 
the childish sports I dehghted in. Not one of us, in our wildest 
moods, ever placed a foot on one of the garden-beds, for that would 
violate one of his rules; and yet I never heard him utter a harsh 
word to one of us, or speak in a raised tone of voice, or use a 
threat. " 

The year 1826 opened gloomily upon Jefferson. He was very 
infirm, and embarrassed by debts, from which he could see but 
little hope of extrication. An endorsement for a friend had placed 
upon him an additional twenty thousand dollars of debt. He 
applied to the Legislature for permission to dispose of a large portion 
of his property by lottery, hoping thus to realize a sum sufficient 



New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 201 

to pay his debts, and to leave enough to give him a competence for 
his few remaining days. Though opposed to all gambhng, he 
argued, in support of his petition, that lotteries were not immoral. 
He w^rote to a friend, that, if the Legislature would grant him the 
indulgence he soHcited, "I can save the house of Monticello and a 
farm adjoining to end my days in, and bury my bones; if not, I must 
sell house and all here, and carry my family to Bedford, where I have 
not even a log hut to put my head into. " 

To Jefferson's great gratification, the lottery bill finally passed. 
But, all over the country, friends who appreciated the priceless 
value of the services which he had rendered our nation began to send 
him tokens of their love. The mayor of New York, Philip Hone, 
sent him, collected from a few friends, eight thousand five hundred 
dollars; from Philadelphia, five thousand dollars were sent; from 
Baltimore, three thousand dollars; and one or two thousand more 
were sent from other sources. These testimonials, Hke sunshine 
breaking through the clouds, dispelled the gloom which had been so 
deeply gathering around his decHning day. Very rapidly he was 
now sinking. His steps became so feeble that with difficulty he 
could totter about the house. 

There was something pecuHarly gentle and touching in his 
whole demeanor. His good-night kiss, his loving embrace, his 
childlike simplicity and tenderness, often brought tears to the eyes of 
those whose privilege it was to minister to his wants. It was evident 
that he was conscious that the hour of his departure was at hand. 
He was exceedingly careful to avoid making any trouble, and was far 
more watchful for the comfort of those around him than for his 
own. His passage was very slow down into the vale of death. To 
one who expressed the opinion that he seemed a little better, he 
rephed: 

"Do not imagine for a moment that I feel the smallest solicitude 
about the result. I am Hke an old watch, with a pinion worn out 
here and a wheel there, until it can go no longer. " 

On Monday evening, the 3d of July, he awoke about ten o'clock 
from troubled sleep, and, thinking it morning, remarked, "This is 
the 4th of July. " Immediately he sank away again into slumber. 
As the night passed slowly away, all saw that he was sinking in 
death. There was silence in the death-chamber. The mysterious 
separation of the soul from the body was painlessly taking place. 



202 New Stars of the Southern Galaxy 

About noon, July 4th, 1826, the last breath left the body, and the 
great statesman and patriot was no more. It was exactly half a 
century since his great production, the "Declaration of Indepen- 
dence," had been adopted by Congress. It is a singular coincidence 
that John Adams, who was on the committee with him to prepare 
the Declaration, died on the same day, his last words being, 
"Thomas Jefferson still survives." He did not know that Jefferson 
was then crossing with him *'the Great Divide." 



CHAPTER XL 

OLD HICKORY, THE HEROIC SON OF 
THE CAROLINAS AND TENNESSEE 

Jackson and the British officer — Studies law and goes to Tennessee — Is sent to Con- 
gress — Supreme Court judge — In business — Hurt in a quarrel — The Creek War 
— Jackson's victory — ^Weathersford surrenders — The burning of Washington — 
The British at New Orleans — Their terrible defeat — Jackson in Florida — The 
end of the trouble — A candidate for the Presidency — His election — The chief 
acts of his administration — His death. 

SOMEWHERE in the western border land of North and South 
Carohna, it is not sure in which, there was born in 1767 a 
child who was destined in after life to play a very important 
part in the history of the South and of the whole United States. 
He came from that hardy and aggressive Scotch-Irish stock which 
naturally gravitated to the frontier of the colonies, and held its own 
sturdily wherever it went. Among all its descendants it produced 
no more daring and belligerent example than Andrew Jackson, the 
famous "Old Hickory" of later days. It is to him that the 
South owes its greatest military event, the victory of New Orleans. 
To him it owed the defeat of its greatest Indian confederation. 
To him it owed the addition of a new star to its crown, the rich 
Spanish province of Florida. And to him it was due that South 
Carolina did not secede from the Union in 1832. In that memor- 
able act he dealt with South Carolina on the basis of a son of the 
soil, for in his proclamation he addressed the nullifiers in the fol- 
lowing words: "Fellow citizens of my native State." In all his 
career he was a true scion of the South, and proved himself a 
hero of whom it might well be proud. As such, the story of his 
life fitly demands a place in our pages. 

While a mere boy Jackson was left an orphan, to make his own 
way in the world. His father died before he was born, and his 
youth was one of severe privation. He was only thirteen when the 
British ravaged South Carolina, killed one of his brothers, and 

203 



204 



Old Hickory 



carried him and another brother away as prisoners. Their mother 
managed to rescue them from British hands, but her son Robert had 
taken the small-pox and died in a few days, and she soon followed 
him to the grave. Andrew was left alone, without a relative or a 
dollar, to fight his way in the world. In 1781, at fourteen years of 
age, he was in arms against the British. He was taken prisoner, 

and being a mere lad, 
an English officer 
sought to make a lack- 
ey of him and ordered 
him to black his 
boots. The defiant 
young American re- 
fused, and the irate 
officer struck him in 
the face with his 
sword, leaving a scar 
which he carried to 
his g r a ve. Thirty- 
three years afterward 
he had his revenge on 
the British army and 
its officers. 

The war over, the 
boy entered a sad- 
dler's shop to learn 
the trade; but he was 
wild and reckless, fond 
of g a m b 1 i n g , cock- 
fighting and horse- 
racing, and thoroughly 
unmanageable. He became an excellent horseman and a capital 
shot, and was of the very stuff" for the life of the frontier. Decid- 
ing that he would make himself a lawyer, he rode to SaHsbury, 
North CaroHna, for that purpose, entering a law office there. At 
twenty he had grown to be a slender and tall young man, six 
feet one inch in height, was distinguished for courage and activity, 
and become noted for his grace of manner and dignity of bearing. 
He was fond of wild adventures, could ride like a centaur, and had 




A:sDKEW JACKSON 

It is to "old Hickory" that the South owes its greatest military event, 
the victory at New Orleans. 



Old Hickory 205 

so fiery a temper that few thought it wise to rouse the young spit- 
fire to anger. Such was Andrew Jackson at the beginning of his 
mature hfe. 

At that time the whole of the region which we now call Ten- 
nessee was almost an unexplored wilderness. It was hunted over 
by bands of Indians, who had been so outraged by vagabonds 
among the whites that they had become bitterly hostile. There was 
a small settlement of pioneers, five hundred miles west of the summit 
of the AUeghanies, near the present site of Nashville, on the banks of 
the Cumberland. Andrew Jackson had not long been a lawyer be- 
fore he was appointed pubHc prosecutor for this remote district. It 
was an office of little honor, small emolument, and great peril, and 
one which few men could be found to accept, but he did not hesitate. 
Early in the spring of 1788 he joined a party of emigrants, 
who rendezvoused at Morgantown, the last frontier settlement in 
North Carolina. They were all mounted on horseback, with their 
baggage on pack-horses. In double file, the long cavalcade 
crossed the mountains by an Indian trail, which had been widened 
into a road. 

Late in October, 1 788, this train of emigrants reached Nashville. 
They brought with them the exciting news that the new Constitution 
had been accepted by a majority of the states, and that George 
Washington would undoubtedly be elected the first President. It 
was estimated that then, in this outpost of civilization, there were 
scattered, in log huts clustered along the banks of the Cumberland, 
about five thousand souls. The Indians were so active in their 
hostilities that it was not safe for any one to live far from the stockade. 
Every man took his rifle with him to the field. Children could not go 
out to gather berries unless accompanied by a guard. 

Jackson was not long in Tennessee before he began the practice 
of law. The collection of debts became a prominent part of his 
practice, and this was a duty that required nerve and resolution 
among those wild frontiersmen. Jackson had the requisite quahties. 
During the first seven years of his residence he traversed the almost 
pathless forest between Nashville and Jonesborough, two hundred 
miles apart, no less than twenty-two times. In these wooded wilds 
hostile Indians might at any time be met, and a traveler was Hable at 
any moment to be shot down in his tracks. Andrew Jackson was 
just the man for this service — a bold, rough, daring backwoodsman. 



2o6 Old Hickory 

Daily he was making hairbreadth escapes. He seemed to bear a 
charmed hfe. Boldly, alone or with few companions, he traversed 
the forests, encountering all perils, and triumphing over all. 

In January, 1796, the territory of Tennessee then containing 
nearly eighty thousand inhabitants, the people met in convention at 
Knoxville to frame a constitution. Five were sent from each of the 
eleven counties. Andrew Jackson was one of the delegates from 
Davidson county. They met in a shabby building in a grove outside 
the city. It was fitted up for the occasion at an expense of twelve 
dollars and sixty-two cents. The members were entitled to two 
dollars and a half a day. They voted to receive but a dollar and a half, 
that the other dollar might go to the payment of secretary, printer, 
doorkeeper, etc. A constitution was formed which was regarded 
as very democratic, and in June, 1796, Tennessee became the 
sixteenth State of the Union. The new state was entitled to one 
member in the national House of Representatives. Andrew Jackson, 
who had won his way to leadership, was chosen that member. 
Mounting his horse, he rode to Philadelphia, where Congress 
then held its sessions — a distance of eight hundred miles. 

A vacancy chanced soon after to occur in the Senate, and 
A^ndrew Jackson was chosen United States Senator by the State of 
Tennessee. John Adams was then President; Thomas Jefferson, 
Vice-President. Many years later, when Jackson was candidate for 
the Presidency, Daniel Webster spent some days at the home of 
the sage of Monticello. He represents Jefferson as saying: — 

"I feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson 
President. He is one of the most unfit men I know of for such a 
place. He has very little respect for law or constitutions, and is, 
in fact, merely an able military chief. His passions are terrible. 
When I was president of the Senate he was senator; and he could 
never speak on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen 
him attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke with rage. His 
passions are no doubt cooler now. He has been much tried since I 
knew him; but he is a dangerous man." 

In 1798 Jackson returned to Tennessee and resigned his seat in 
the Senate. Soon after he was chosen judge of the Supreme Court 
of the State, with a salary of six hundred dollars. This office he held 
for six years. It is said that his decisions, though sometimes 
ungrammatical, were usually just. 



Old Hickory 207 

In subsequent years Jackson engaged in various pursuits. 
Growing weary of the judgeship, or perhaps dissatisfied with the 
salary, he resigned in 1804, bought a stock ot goods in Philadelphia, 
and engaged in trade. His store was about thirteen miles from 
Nashville, and consisted of a small block-house, from whose narrow 
window, with his trusty rifle near to his hand, he sold goods to 
the Indians. This occupation also he soon grew tired of, and gave 
up store-keeping to cultivate his plantation, which was several thou- 
sand acres in extent. His wife — a woman divorced from her brutal 
first husband and whom he had married early in his Tennessee 
career — was an excellent manager and one of the most cheerful and 
entertaining of companions, and his home was a very happy one. 
As they had no children, they adopted a son of one of Mrs. Jackson's 
sisters, and this boy became the pride, hope and joy of his life. 
Hot tempered as he was, it is said that he never showed even as 
much as impatience in his deahngs with any member of his own 
household. 

Feuds and duels were no uncommon events on the frontier at 
that time, and Jackson's passionate disposition brought him into 
more than one affair of this kind. The most notable of these was 
an aff"ray with the celebrated Colonel Thomas H. Benton, which 
ended in Jackson's receiving a severe wound in the arm and shoulder 
from the pistol of Benton's brother. This took place in September, 
18 13, just before one of the most critical periods in Jackson's 
career. We have dealt with him so far in times of peace. We 
must now follow his striking record in war. 

Jackson's beUigerent disposition had early led him into military 
life, and for a number of years he had held the rank of major-general 
in the militia of Tennessee. When the War of 18 12 broke out he 
was quick to offer his services and those of 2,500 Tennessee back- 
woods volunteers, to the government, and was ordered to lead them 
to New Orleans. But before reaching there this order was counter- 
manded and his small army was disbanded. The quarrel with 
Benton, which led to the subsequent duel, took place while the latter 
commanded a regiment in Jackson's army. 

Meanwhile troubles with the Indians were developing. The 
famous chief, Tecumseh, in his efforts to unite all the tribes against 
the whites, and if possible drive them from the country into the sea, 
had made his way south and put mischief into the heads of the chiefs 



^o8 Old Hickory 

of the powerful Creek confederation of the old Georgia territory. 
From the Gulf to the Lakes the Indians rose and committed terrible 
ravages on the white settlements. The Creeks took a bloody part 
in it, and on the last day of August, 1813, they surprised Fort 
Mimms, Alabama, in which a large number of settlers had taken 
refuge, and massacred nearly the whole number. 

Tennessee was quick to take action in this crisis. Five 
thousand men were ordered to be raised and put under Jackson's 
command, with the purpose of punishing the Indians. Among 
those under "Old Hickory," as his admirers called him, were 
Samuel Houston and David Crockett, afterward famous in the 
Texan war for independence. 

Jackson was in a very unfit condition to lead an army. The 
fractured bones were just beginning to knit from his dangerous 
wound of a month before. He was unable to mount a horse without 
assistance. Yet he was as vital as ever with combative energy, 
and at once went to work to enlist an army which was directed to 
gather at Fayetteville, on the border line of Alabama, on the 4th of 
October, 18 13. 

Jackson was still suffering severely from his wound when he 
took the field, and continued to suffer throughout the campaign, but 
no man in the fullness of health and strength could have pushed the 
savage foe with more relentless energy. He pursued them without 
cessation, and finally brought them to bay at Talluschatches, where 
a fierce fight took place in which two hundred of the warriors were 
killed, and many of their women and children made prisoners. The 
final battle was fought at a strong fort which the Creeks had built in 
one of the bends of the Tallapoosa River, near the center of Alabama, 
about fifty miles below Fort Strother. With an army of two thousand 
men. General Jackson traversed the pathless wilderness in a march 
of eleven days. He reached their fort, called Tahopeka, or Horse- 
shoe, on the 27th of March, 18 14. The bend of the river enclosed 
nearly one hundred acres of tangled forest and wild ravine. Across 
the narrow neck the Indians had constructed a formidable breast- 
work of logs and brush. Here nine hundred warriors, with an 
ample supply of arms and ammunition, were assembled. 

The fort was stormed. The fight was utterly desperate. Not an 
Indian would accept of quarter. When bleeding and dying, they 
would fight those who endeavored to spare their Hves. From ten 



Old Hickory 



209 



in the morning until dark the battle raged. The carnage was awful 
and revolting. Some threw themselves into the river; but the unerr- 
ing bullets struck their heads as they swam. Nearly every one of 
the nine hundred warriors was killed. A few probably, in the night, 
swam the river and escaped. This ended the war. The power of 




OSCEOLA'S INDIGNATION 



Osceola, the Seminole chief, drew his hunting knife and drove it through the treaty which some of his fellow- 
chief's had signed, thus starting the Seminole war of 1832, in which Zachary Taylor was engaged. 

the Creeks was broken forever. This bold plunge into the wilder- 
ness, with its terrific slaughter, so appalled the savages, that the 
remnants of the bands came to the camp, begging for peace. 

Jackson was anxious to kill or capture Weathersford, the half- 
breed Indian who had led the Creeks at the massacre of Fort 

14 



210 Old Hickory 

Mimms, but this chief escaped. His power was at an end, however, 
and a few hours after the battle a stalwart Indian stalked into Jack- 
son's tent and stood in proud dignity before him. 

"I am Weathersford," he said. "lam in your power; do 
what you please with me. I have done the white people all the 
harm I could; but I can do no more, my voice cannot call back the 
dead. When they lived I never asked for peace, but they are gone, 
and I ask it now for my people and myself. " 

This was an appeal that spoke to Jackson's heart. He could 
not but admire the courage and dignity of the chief. His surrender 
was accepted and peace was made, the bold action of the chief no 
doubt softening its terms. 

An important result of the war, so far as Jackson was concerned, 
was his appointment as major-general in the United States Army. 
This gave him an income of over six thousand dollars, and made him 
a rich man for those times. The period was near at hand in which 
he would amply justify the government for this appointment. 

Immediately upon the fall of Napoleon, in 1814, the British 
Cabinet decided to strike the United States a crushing blow. With 
their veteran army relieved and their great fleet free to descend in 
force on the American coast, they hoped to lay all our seaport towns 
in ashes, annihilate our navy, and drive our armies into the forests. 
In pursuance of this plan an army of veterans was sent to the Chesa- 
peake, landed near the mouth of the Patuxent River, and marched on 
the National Capital. The force of untrained militia gathered to 
oppose them was soon put to flight, and the city of Washington fell 
into their hands. The President fled, and after him his wife, taking 
with her the valuable Cabinet papers and a portrait of Washington 
which was screwed to the wall. The public buildings of the Capital 
were burned and all the records destroyed, an act of vandalism of 
which the British have ever since been ashamed. Baltimore was 
also attacked, but here the invaders were driven ofi^. 

A leading feature in the British plan was the capture of New 
Orleans. If that city were taken, it might be held at the end 
of the war, and the control of the Mississippi fall into British 
hands — as long, at least, as the South and the West would permit 
such a state of aff^airs to continue. A British fleet sought the Gulf 
and landed troops at the Spanish settlements of Pensacola and 
Apalachicola, where they gave arms to the Indians and prepared 



Old Hickory 211 

for a descent in force on New Orleans, America's most Important 
center of population and commerce in the southwest. Most of the 
hostile Indians, flying from the tremendous blows which General 
Jackson had dealt them, had taken refuge in Florida. Jackson, far 
away in the wilderness of Tennessee, was left to act almost without 
instructions. He decided to take the responsibility, the crisis being 
too vital for delay. 

The whole South and West were fully aroused to meet and 
repel the foe. By the ist of November General Jackson had in 
Mobile an army of four thousand men. He resolved to march upon 
Pensacola, where the Spaniards were sheltering the foe, and, as he 
expressed it, "rout out the EngHsh." He advanced upon Pen- 
sacola, stormed the town, took possession of every fort, and drove 
the British fleet out to sea. Having garrisoned Mobile, he next 
moved his troops to New Orleans, a distance of one hundred and 
seventy miles. He was at this time so feeble that he could ride but 
seventeen miles a day. He reached New Orleans on the ist of 
December. This city at that time contained about twenty thousand 
inhabitants and every available man in the place and the country 
near by was brought into service. 

A British fleet of sixty ships, many of them of the first class, and 
which had obtained renown in the naval conflicts of Trafalgar and 
the Nile, was assembled in a spacious bay on the western end of the 
Island of Jamaica. This fleet, which carried a thousand cannons, 
was manned by nearly nine thousand sailors and marines, and 
transported a land force of ten thousand veteran soldiers, fresh from 
the wars of Europe, and flushed with victory over Napoleon. The 
fleet entered Lake Borgne, a shallow bay opening into the Gulf of 
Mexico near New Orleans, on the loth of December, 1814. There 
were five small cutters in the lake, which were soon overpowered by 
the immense force of the foe. Unaware how feeble was General 
Jackson's force, their leaders did not deem it prudent to move upon 
the city until they had greatly increased their numbers. This delay 
probably saved New Orleans. 

At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 23d General Jackson 
learned that the foe, marching from Lake Borgne, were within a 
few miles of the city. He immediately collected his motley force of 
the men of the frontiers, about two thousand in number, and 
marched to meet them. Falling upon them impetuously in a night 



212 Old Hickory 

attack he checked their progress, and drove them back toward their 
landing-place where, surprised by the fury of the assault, they 
waited for reinforcements. 

These soon came up in large numbers, and General Pakenham, 
on the 28th, pushed his veteran battalions forward on a reconnois- 
sance, intending to sweep, if possible, over Jackson's unfinished 
breastwork. It was a brilliant morning. Jackson, an old borrowed 
telescope in his hand, was keenly on the watch. The solid columns of 
red-coats come on, in mihtary array, as beautiful as awe-inspiring. 
The artillery led, heralding the advance with a shower of Congreve 
rockets, round shot, and shell. The muskets of the infantry flashed 
brightly in the light of the morning sun. The Britons were in high 
hopes. It seemed absurd to suppose that a few thousand raw militia 
could resist the veterans who had conquered the armies of 
Napoleon. 

General Jackson had not quite three thousand men behind his 
breastwork; but every one had imbibed the spirit of his chieftain. 
Many of them were his fellow settlers of Tennessee, experts with the 
rifle and full of courage and daring. There were eight thousand 
Veteran soldiers marching upon them. For a few hours there were 
the tumult, the horror, the carnage of a battle; and then the British 
host seemed to have melted away. With shattered ranks, leaving 
their dead behind them, a second time they retreated. A third 
attack, on January ist, 1815, had the same result. 

On Friday, the 6th, General Jackson became assured that the 
enemy was preparing to attack him on both sides of the river. At 
half an hour before the dawn of Sunday morning, January 8, a 
rocket from the hostile lines gave the signal for the attack. In two 
solid columns the British advanced upon the Americari ramparts, 
which were bristling with infantry and artillery, and behind 
which General Jackson had now collected an army of about four 
thousand men, all inspired with the zeal of their commander. 

Jackson's men were well protected. With trained resolution 
the British marched upon the embankment, from which there was 
poured forth an incessant storm of bullets, balls and shells which 
no flesh and blood could stand. It was one of the most awful scenes 
of slaughter which was ever witnessed. Scarcely a bullet failed in 
its mission, spending its force in the bodies of those who were driven 
forward to inevitable death. Two hundred men were cut down 



Old Hickory 213 

by one discharge of a thirty-two pounder, loaded to the muzzle 
with musket-balls, and poured into the head of a column at the dis- 
tance of a few yards. Regiments vanished, a British officer said, 
"as if the earth had opened and swallowed them up." The 
American line looked like a row of fiery furnaces. General 
Jackson walked slowly along his ranks, cheering his men, and 
saying: — 

"Stand to your guns! Don't waste your ammunition! See 
that every shot tells! Let us finish the business to-day!" 

Two hours passed, and the work was done — effectually done. 
As the smoke lifted, the whole proud array had disappeared. The 
ground was so covered with the dying and the dead, that, for a 
quarter of a mile in front, one might have walked upon their bodies; 
and far away in the distance the retreating lines of the foe were to be 
seen. , On both sides of the river the enemy was repulsed. 

The British had about nine thousand in the engagement, the 
Americans only about four thousand. Their loss in killed and 
wounded was two thousand six hundred, while the American loss 
was but thirteen. Thus ended the great battle of New Orleans. 

In those days intelligence traveled so slowly that it was not 
until the 4th of February that tidings of the victory reached Wash- 
ington. The whole country blazed with illuminations and rang 
with rejoicings. Ten days after this came the welcome news that a 
ti^aty of peace had been signed at Ghent. It was dated on Christ- 
mas Eve, 1 8 14, two weeks before the battle was fought. The 
British had paid dearly for the lack of rapid communication. Had 
the telegraph existed in those days that great battle would not have 
been fought and Andrew Jackson, in all probability, would never 
have been President of the United States. 

Yet new warlike work awaited the daring and impetuous hero 
of Tennessee. The Indians of Florida began to make raids into 
Georgia and Alabama, and Spain, when asked to stop them, failed 
to do so. The Spanish authorities either would not or could not 
keep order, and a state of border warfare arose. 

In 18 1 8 General Jackson was sent to put an end to this trouble. 
He was given the right to pursue the raiders into Spanish territory, 
but he was directed not to attack any of the Spanish posts without 
orders from Washington. The administration should not have sent 
a man Hke Jackson with such instructions. He was the last man 



214 



Old Hickory 



in the world to wait for orders when contingencies arose. Raising 
a force of four thousand men, many of them Creek Indians, he 
pursued the Seminoles into Florida, drove them from point to point, 
and captured several Spanish forts, among them that of Pensacola, 
on the plea that their commanders were aiding the enemy. Two 
British traders, who were thought to be supplying the Indians, Vv^ere 
seized and executed, though their guilt was not fully estabhshed. 
The headstrong Tennessean had managed to bring the country into 
hostile relations with both Spain and Great Britain. 

Jackson's disregard of orders and of treaties, and his hasty deal- 

mg with his British pris- 
oners, raised a storm of 
protest against him, 
though he found many 
defenders. But he had 
Congress and the Presi- 
dent ahke on his side. 
Spain was in high resent- 
ment against the inva- 
sion of her territory, but 
she had never held Flori- 
da with a strong hand, 
and as the controversy 
went on it became evident 
that it was likely to prove 
a very troublesome pos- 
JACKSON MONUMENT IN NEW ORLEANS session. To get out of the 
difficulty Spain offered, in 1819, to sell the whole province to the 
United States for five million dollars. Here was a cheap and easy 
way to settle an annoying question, especially as Spain offered to 
add to the bargain all her claim to territory west of the Rocky 
Mountains and north of the forty-second parallel of latitude. The 
bargain was concluded, and a new and valuable addition was made 
to the territory ot the South — the more valuable as it gave us ac- 
cess to the entire eastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Jackson was 
rewarded for his services by being made Governor of Florida. He 
did not stay there long, however, but went back to his home and 
his plantation in Tennessee. 

Andrew Jackson was now the great mxilitary hero of the country, 




Old Hickory 215 

before whose luster that of all the other leaders in the late war paled. 
His name soon began to be brought forward in connection with the 
Presidency of the United States. He was elected United States 
Senator from Tennessee in 1823, and in the stormy Presidential 
election of 1824 he received more electoral votes than any of his 
competitors. He was evidently the choice of the people, but as he 
had not a majority of the whole vote the election was thrown into 
the House of Representatives, and John Quincy Adams was chosen. 
In the campaign of 1828 he was triumphantly elected. 

But any sense of elation that the victor in this campaign might 
have felt was turned into bitter grief by the death, just before he 
assumed the reins of government, of his beloved wife. His devotion 
to her was one of the strong passions of his life, and from the shock 
of her death he never recovered. He ever afterward appeared like 
a changed man. He became subdued in spirit, and, except when 
his terrible temper had been greatly aroused, seldom used profane 
language. It is said that every night afterward, until his own death, 
he read a prayer from his wife's prayer-book, with her miniature 
likeness before him. 

Jackson was made by nature for a general, not for a President. 
He was the first man not trained in statesmanship to fill the Presi- 
dential chair, and he filled it as though at the head of an army. 
He took his views of affairs strongly, and being innately obstinate, 
and always sure he was right, he was not to be moved by argument. 
No President was ever less inclined to yield to the opinions of his 
Cabinet officials. His one strong quality was honesty. In all he 
did he meant well by his country, and he attacked what seemed to 
him corruption without a thought of whom it might hurt. 

The marked acts of his administration were those of his inau- 
gurating the principle of " rotation in office, " in favor of the adherents 
of the dominant party, his vetoing the bill for re-chartering the 
United States Bank, and his determination that the Federal laws 
should be obeyed in South Carolina and secession checked by force 
if necessary. As he considered himself a native of South Carolina, 
probably he felt that he had a more jntimate right than that given 
him by his office as President to a voice in the affairs of that State. 
However that be, Jackson, while an advocate for low tariff, had no 
belief in the right of secession, and in his beliefs lay the mainspring 
of his actions. 



2i6 Old Hickory 

His administration was one of the most memorable in the 
annals of our country; applauded by one party, condemned by the 
other. No man had more bitter enemies or warmer friends. It is, 
however, undeniable that many of the acts of his administration, 
which were at the time most unsparingly denounced, are now gen- 
erally commendedc With all his glaring faults, he was a sincere 
patriot, honestly seeking the good of his country. With the masses 
of the people Andrew Jackson was the most popular President, with 
veiy few exceptions, who ever occupied the chair. He was looked 
upon as a man of the people, and a safeguard agamst the danger of 
an aristocracy, which many of the people feared. 

He retired from office in 1837 to the "Hermitage," his Ten- 
nessee home. Here his life ended m 1845. On Sunday morning, 
June 8th, it was seen that his last hour was at hand. He assembled 
all his family around him, and, in the most affecting manner, took 
leave of each one. "He then," writes one who was present, "deliv- 
ered one of the most impressive lectures on the subject of religion 
that I have ever heard. He spoke for nearly half an hour, and 
apparently with the power of inspiration." Soon after this he 
suddenly, and without a struggle, ceased to breathe. Two days 
after he was placed in a grave by the side of his wife. He had often 
said, "Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife 
there.*' 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE, THE PAL- 
LADIUM OF LIBERTY IN AMERICA 

The benefits of the Monroe Doctrine — Sketch of James Monroe — The Louisiana 
Purchase — Monroe as President — Early expressions of American statesmen — 
Jefferson's views in 1808 — The Spanish Colonies revolt — The Doctrine a South- 
ern measure — The Holy Alliance and its purpose — Russia's attitude — Canning's 
action — The Monroe Doctrine stated — Its effect — Its history — England's 
designs on Nicaragua — The Cuban question — President Polk restates the Doc- 
trine — The French in Mexico — They are forced to withdraw — The Venezuelan 
boundary dispute — President Roosevelt on the Monroe Doctrine — The blockade 
of Venezuela — Secretary Olney's opinion — The Drago Doctrine. 

THE famous Monroe Doctrine, the most dominant political 
question in the Western Hemisphere at the opening of the 
twentieth century, the wall of defiance before which the 
ambition of Europe stands baffled and perplexed, is distinctively 
of Southern origin, and as such it calls for treatment here. In 
the words of Secretary Hay, before the New York Chamber of 
Commerce, in November, 1901 : "Our rule of conduct is the Monroe 
Doctrine and the Golden Rule." As regards the Golden Rule, 
there are many among us who might call this statement in question; 
but that the Monroe Doctrine is one of our most decided and impor- 
tant rules of conduct is certainly not open to doubt. Several of the 
governments of Europe have excellent reason to acknowledge the 
truth of this statement, eince this rule, with the great power of the 
United States behind it, has undoubtedly proved the salvation of the 
republics to the south. But for this vigorous declaration of Ameri- 
can poHcy, South and Central America might long since have gone as 
spoil to the spoilers and been cut into convenient slices for Euro- 
pean digestion, as China was recently in danger of being dealt with. 

217 



2i8 The Monroe Doctrine 

Before describing this vital doctrine of American policy, let us 
say something of its author, James Monroe, the fifth President of the 
United States, the only one besides Washington who was the 
choice of the people and not of a party. Monroe was a true son of 
the "old Dominion." Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 
1758, he was only eighteen years old in 1776 when patriotism led 
him into the army of the Revolution. There was no more ardent 
and able soldier in that army of dehverance than young James 
Monroe. Washington recognized his abihty and made him a 
Heutenant soon after his enUstment, and as such he served in the 
battles of Harlem Heights and White Plains. In the famous battle 
of Trenton, the turning point in the early war, Monroe was wounded, 
and showed such courage and ability that he was promoted to the 
rank of captain. He served with distinction at the battles of Brandy- 
wine and Monmouth, as aide-de-camp to Lord Stirling. Having lost 
his rank in the regular army by acting as aide to Stirling, he retired 
in 1778 and began the study of law under Thomas Jefferson. He 
was still only twenty years of age. 

Monroe's later career may be treated concisely. He was elected 
to the Virginia Assembly in 1782 and entered Congress in 1783. In 
1788 he became an active member of the Anti-Federahst party, 
opposing the Constitution strongly on account of the great power 
which it conferred upon the Federal government. In 1790 
Virginia elected him to the United States Senate for four years. In 
1794 he was sent as Minister to France, and after his return was 
Governor of Virginia from 1799 to 1802. Then followed one of the 
momentous events in Monroe's career, that in which he took part in 
the famous purchase of the great territory of Louisiana. 

President Jefferson sent Monroe to France in 1802 as envoy 
extraordinary, to unite with Minister Livingston in an effort to 
purchase the city of New Orleans and its surrounding territory, with 
the purpose of doing away with the obstructions to American navi- 
gation of the Mississippi. Their efforts met with an unlooked-for 
and remarkable response. Napoleon unexpectedly offering them the 
whole vast territory of Louisiana, extending from the Mississippi 
River to the Rocky Mountains, for the small sum of ^15,000,000. 
Here was a position in which men of force and decision were needed. 
The envoys had no authority to close with any such offer. They 
had been sent to buy a city and were offered an empire. Weak 



The Monroe Doctrine 219 

men would have hesitated and perhaps lost the opportunity. Na- 
poleon was a man of immediate action. Before they could send the 
proposition to America and get an answer he might have withdrawn 
the offer. And the answer might have been adverse. As it 
proved Monroe and his colleague were equal to the occasion. They 
accepted the offer without hesitation, and as such won the plaudits of 
all long-sighted Americans, though at first even Jefferson hesitated at 
confirming their act, and vigorous opposition developed in the Senate. 

How the people of the 
United States now look 
upon the decisive act 
of Monroe we have had 
abundant evidence in 
the magnificent Louis- 
iana Purchase Exposi- 
tion at St. Louis. 

In 1803 Monroe 
was sent as Minister 
to England, remaining 
until 1808, during 
which time he per- 
formed several impor- 
tant diplomatic duties. 
Elected Governor of 
Virginia for a second 
time in 1811, he was 
appointed by Madison 
Secretary of State in 
the same year, and act- 
ed as Secretary of War 
in the gloomy period 
that followed the burn- 
ing of Washington. He 
retained the post of Sec- 
retary of State till the beginning of his Presidential career in 
March, 181 7. Elected by a large majority in 1816, he was reelected 
without opposition from party or opponent in 1820, only one electoral 
vote being cast against him, and that by a member of the electoral 
body who was determined that no one should rival Washington in 




JAMES MONROE 

The originator of the Famous Monroe Doctrine. 

(1758-1831. Two terms, 1817-1825.) 



2 20 The Monroe Doctrine 

a unanimous election. Among the leading events of his eight years 
of service were the purchase of Florida from Spain in 1819, the 
recognition of the independence of the South American States, and 
the celebrated message of December, 1823, in which the famous 
"Monroe Doctrine" was enunciated. Monroe died on the Fourth 
of July, 1 83 1, being the third President to die on the country's 
natal day. His remains now He in the beautiful Hollywood Ceme- 
tery, at Richmond, Virginia. 

This is ail we need say here of the life of this distinguished son 
of old Virginia, the successor of Madison, the notable events of whose 
career we have already described, and the last and among the ablest 
of that coterie of Southern statesmen who came down from revolution- 
ary times and filled the office of President of the great western repub- 
lic. It is the work upon which his fame will especially rest, the re- 
nowned Monroe Doctrine, that forms the subject of this chapter. 

This great " Doctrine" was in nearly every particular a measure 
of Southern origin. Credit has been given to John Quincy Adams 
as if he were its true originator, but to do so is to go much too far, as 
the demand for American independence from foreign sovereignty 
arose long before 1823. It began with the beginning of our national 
life and has continued throughout its course. 

Thomas Pownall, who had been Governor of Massachusetts and 
of New Jersey in colonial times, remarked, as early as 1780, that a 
people "whose empire stands singly predominant on a great con- 
tinent" could not with equanimity "suffer in their borders such a 
monopoly as the European Hudson Bay Company." He further 
said that "America must avoid complication with European pohtics, " 
or "the entanglement of alliances; having no connections with 
Europe other than commercial. " 

These were far-seeing sentiments at that period, when the 
desperate struggle for independence was not yet at an end. In the 
immediately following years, Jefferson, Monroe and Washington 
expressed opinions similar in tendency, these culminating in 1796 
in the view of our foreign relations expressed in Washington's 
Farewell Address: "The great rule of conduct for us in regard to 
foreio-n nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have 
with them as little political connection as possible." 

Presidents Adams and Jefferson expressed themselves some- 
what similarly, and in 1808 Jefferson made the significant remark 
in relation to the States of the Spanish colonies: "We consider their 



The Monroe Doctrine 221 

interests and ours as the same, and that the object of both must be 
to exclude all European influence in this hemisphere. " It was the 
Spanish uprising against Bonaparte, and the effect it might have 
upon the political position of Cuba and Mexico, that gave rise to 
this remark. Jefferson objected strongly to the possible seizure of 
these colonies by France or England. A declaration to the same 
effect, in reference to the territory of West Florida, was made by 
Madison in 1811. 

Subsequent events brought the political relations of the Spanish 
American countries more decidedly into the foreground. Revolts, 
beginning in 18 10, spread rapidly through their whole extent, and 
by 1821 their freedom from Spain was practically won, though not 
yet acknowledged. During this protracted war warm sympathy 
was felt in this country for the struggling colonists and aid reached 
them from the United States. Henry Clay was outspoken in 
advocating "the emancipation of South America." President 
Monroe made a cautious movement in the same direction in the 
first year of his Presidency, sendmg a commission to South America 
to study the situation and report if any of the revolutionary govern- 
ments were in a position to demand recognition. In the following 
year news came from Europe of a startling character, to the effect 
that some of the powers of that continent were likely to intervene in 
favor of Spain in the South American conflict. These tidings 
aroused the United States government to positive action. John 
Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, curtly announced that, "if the 
European alliance undertook to settle matters which concerned us 
so closely, they should not be surprised if we acted without con- 
sulting them." He sounded the British minister upon the attitude 
of his country in the matter, the President desiring Great Britain 
to join with the United States in recognizing the independence of 
the South American colonies. 

At a Cabinet meeting held in May, 18 18, President Monroe 
suggested that the American ministers abroad should be instructed 
to inform the European powers that the United States would not 
"join in any project of interposition between Spain and the South 
Americans which should not be to promote the complete inde- 
pendence of those provinces." This action seems to have had the 
desired effect, the allied powers of Europe giving assurance that 
they did not contemplate armed interference in favor of Spain. 
Thus the stringency of the situation passed away. 



222 The Monroe Doctrine 

It will be seen from what is above stated that the doctrine of 
"America for the Americans" was, in all its preliminary steps, 
distinctively a Southern measure. With the exception of Adams, 
Monroe's Secretary of State, and presumably acting under his 
direction or his influence, all the voices raised in its favor had been 
those of far-seeing Southern statesmen. The same continued the 
case. The next expression of opinion on the subject came from 
Thomas Jefferson, Virginia's distinguished son, in a letter dated 
August 4, 1820. In it he expressed hopes of a cordial fraternization 
of all the American nations and the formation of a distinctive 
American system of policy, and said: "The day is not distant when 
we may formally require a medium of partition through the ocean 
which separates the two hemispheres, on the nether side of which no 
European gun shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other; 
and when, during the rage of the eternal wars of Europe, the lion 
and the lamb within our regions shall he down together in peace." 
Here was the principle of the Monroe Doctrine clearly outlined, — 
as a suggestion, however, not as a declaration of principles. The 
latter needed to be left to one armed with the authority of official 
position. 

After 1 8 18 the exigency apparently ceased to exist, and cause for 
alarm was not revived until 1823. In May, 1822, the United States 
formally recognized the new repubUcs of the south, whose unofficial 
guardian this country was destined to become. The new difficulty 
arose from the action of the " Holy Alliance," a compact of the auto- 
cratic rulers of Europe formed after the fall of Napoleon, its purpose 
being to put an end to all popular governments. The aUied powers 
succeeded in banishing for the time being all representative insti- 
tutions from Europe, and there were indications that they purposed 
to take a similar course in America, aiding Ferdinand of Spain to 
regain his last colonies, and doubtless proposing to pay themselves 
richly out of the territory of the transatlantic republics. 

Hints of this proposed action of the "Holy AUiance" got abroad 
and reached the United States, whose leading statesmen at once 
took the alarm and rose in vigorous opposition. A significant step 
had already been taken by Russia, the owner of Alaska in the Ameri- 
can northwest. In 182 1 the Emperor Alexander I issued a ukase in 
which he claimed the coastal regions down to the fifty-fiist parallel of 
latitude, and forbade any foreign vessel to approach within one 



The Monroe Doctrine 



223 



hundred miles of these shores. A Russian settlement had also been 
made on the coast of California, and it was very probable, if Spain 
should recover Mexico, that the Czar of Russia would claim Cal- 
ifornia as his share. In a conversation between Secretary Adams 
and Baron Tuyll, the Russian minister, Adams plainly gave the 
Baron to understand that any such effort would be opposed by the 

United States, as would 
a similar attempt on the 
part of any European 
power. The difficulty 
with Russia was ami- 
cably settled in the 
following year, the 
southern boundary of 
Alaska being fixed at 
the parallel of 54° 40', 
and the more southern 
colonies abandoned. 
Such was the first vic- 
tory of the United 
States over the Euro- 
pean desire to colonize 
America. 

The United States 
was not the only coun- 
try disturbed by the 
projects of the Holy Al- 
liance. Great Britain, 
which had gained a 
profitable commerce 
with Spanish America, 
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON was also concerned, 

The fifth Virginian to become President of the United States. ^.Tld Prime Minister 

Canning questioned Minister Rush on the expediency of an 
aUiance between the two countries to oppose any invasion of 
the new republics by the allied powers. When this suggestion 
reached Washington it created some degree of alarm in the mind 
of President Monroe, who was now for the first time made 
aware of the imminence of the danger. He, however, in the spirit 




2 24 The Monroe Doctrine 

of Washington's recommendation, declined to enter into any "en- 
tangling alliance" with Great Britain. Canning thereupon decided 
to act alone, and gave the French Minister to understand that 
England would oppose any effort of the aUied powers to subjugate 
the late colonies ot Spain. 

We mention particularly Canning's action in this matter, as* it 
gave him the credit with some as being the true father of the Monroe 
Doctrine. Charles Sumner gave him this credit, saying that "the 
Monroe Doctrine proceeded irom Canning," and that this British 
statesman was "its inventor, promoter, and champion, at least so 
far as it bears against European intervention in American affairs." 

It need scarcely be said that this is an unjust statement of the 
case. The statesmen of the South did not wait till 1823 to express 
themselves plainly on this question. We have already shown how 
it was led up to from the preceding century, and how Monroe and 
Jefferson had stated their views several years before. The exigency 
now existing, however, called for more decided steps, and an official 
rather than a personal expression of opinion. Monroe felt it incum- 
bent upon him to take decisive action, but in advance of doing so 
sought advice not only from his Secretary of State, but from such dis- 
tinguished statesmen of the South as the renowned author of the 
"Declaration of Independence," Madison, his predecessor in office, 
and Calhoun, his Secretary of War. These all firmly sustained him 
in his proposed action, Jefferson writing him at length, and saying; 
"Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle our- 
selves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to 
intermeddle with transatlantic affairs." Thus strongly supported 
by America's ablest statesmen, the President wrote those celebrated 
words which have become the leading clause in the American Decla- 
ration of Principles. 

In his annual message to Congress, under date of December 2, 
1823, President Monroe, after speaking of the pending negotiations 
between Russia and the United States for the settlement of their 
respective rights in the northwest, proceeded to say: 

" The occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle 
in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, 
that the American continents, by the free and independent condition 
which they have assumed and wMintatn, are henceforth not to be con- 
sidered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. 



The Monroe Doctrine 225 

"The political system of the allied powers is essentially different 
from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which 
exists in their respective governments. And to the defense of our 
own, which has been achieved with the loss of so much blood and 
treasure, and matured by the wisdom of our most enhghtened 
citizens, and under which we have enjoyed une*xampled felicity, 
this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and 
to the amicable relations existing between the United States and 
those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their 
part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dan- 
gerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or 
dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and 
shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared 
their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we 
have, in great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, 
ive could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing 
them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any 
European power, in any other light than as the manifestations of an 
unfriendly disposition towards the United States. 

"It is impossible that the aUied powers should extend their 
political system to any portion of either continent without endan- 
gering our peace and happiness; nor can any one believe that our 
southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own 
accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold 
such interposition, in any form, with indifference. If we look to the 
comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new gov- 
ernments, and their distance from each other, it must be obvious 
that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the 
United States to leave the parties to themselves, in the hope that 
other powers will pursue the same course." 

The passages in italics constitute what has since been known 
as the "Monroe Doctrine." Had it been given to the world ten 
or more years previously it might have been regarded by the proud 
empires of Europe with disdain. But the United States had now 
become a power whose official utterances it was not wise to ignore, 
and Monroe's message, with the adherence of Great Britain to its 
policy of non-interference, put an end to any purpose of intervention 
that the Holy Alliance might have had in view. 

The effect of the message, with its significant passages, was 

15 



2 26 The Monroe Doctrine 

immediate. It was received with warm approval in the United 
States, all party spirit being set aside in the general commendation 
of its purport. Its effect in Europe was quickly shown by the 
rise in the funds of the Spanish American repubHcs, an indication 
that the financiers looked upon it as a decisive victory for these new 
countries. It was received with enthusiasm in England, for com- 
mercial reasons, the only part of it objected to being that referring 
to colonization, which, aimed especially at Russia, applied to all 
foreign powers. As for the projects of the Holy Alliance, they died 
a sudden death. Nothing more was heard of intervention in behalf 
of Spain, and the pernicious conspiracy to extend despotism through- 
out the world began from that time to decHne. 

As regards the reception of this measure by Northern statesmen, 
we have already seen how strongly it was supported by John Quincy 
Adams, and may quote from a speech made by Daniel Webster on 
April II, 1826. After asserting that the honor of the country was 
involved in the Monroe Doctrine, he said: "I look upon the message 
of December, 1823, as forming a bright page in our history. I will 
help neither to erase it nor to tear it out; nor shall it be by any act 
of mine blurred or blotted. It did honor to the sagacity of the 
government and I will not diminish that honor." 

Such was the Monroe Doctrine, such its origin, and such its 
reception by the country and the world. It was, as we have seen, 
the work of Southern statesmen, only one of Northern birth taking 
part in it, and just how far that part was original with himself we 
do not know. This being the case, some review of the later history 
of the doctrine is in place. While the Powers of Europe have been 
in the habit of speaking of it rather contemptuously as a mere expres- 
sion of opinion, without standing in international law, they have 
been chary of rousing up the force behind the sentiment, especially 
as that force grew more potent with the passing of the years. The 
Monroe Doctrine has been like the claws withdrawn within the fur, 
unseen but ready, and dangerous to meddle with. On various 
occasions the claws have been shown. We shall proceed to describe 
the more important of these. 

During more than twenty years following the enunciation of the 
Monroe Doctrine it was suffered to lie dormant, though several events 
took place in the Spanish-American States which seemed to involve 
its principles. The South American republics demanded its 



The Monroe Doctrine 



227 



application whenever their lawless acts brought them into difficulty 
with European nations, and roundly denounced the United States 
for abandoning its principles when it decided to interfere. But the 
great nation of the north bided its time, and was not to be aroused by 
every feeble bark. 

The first occasion for the assertion of United States' protection 

-[ of its sister repubUcs 
I arose from the en- 
! roachments of England 
upon Nicaragua. These 
became pronounced in 
1835, and the lion of the 
west grew alert, but still 
bided its time. They 
went on until 1848, 
when a British force 
seized the port of San 
Juan, as the property of 
the Indian " King of 
Mosquitia, " and 1849, 
when the island of 
Tigre was occupied by 
British troops. This 
was the first open de- 
fiance of the Monroe 
Doctrine, and the lion 
growled o m i n o u s ly . 
Great Britain hastened 
to say that it was all 
a mistake and the 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty 
settled the question for 
the time being. 




JAMES K. POLK 

The first President to reassert the Monroe Doctrine 

(1795-1849. One term. 1845-1849.) 

A question arose about the same time concerning the island of 
Cuba, which England and France were eager to take under their 
"protection." In 1822 and again in 1825 the French threatened to 
seize the island, and Great Britain showed a similar hankering, 
while the United States kept quiet but watched them keenly. As 
time went on the attentions of the two European powers to this 



2 28 The Monroe Doctrine 

Spanish island grew more marked, but the eyes of the lion were upon 
them and they hesitated to act. In 1843 our government spoke out: 
"The United States never would permit the occupation of that island 
by British agents or forces upon any pretext whatever;" and in 
1852 this country declined to join England and France in a three- 
sided agreement not to disturb Cuba, Secretary Everett saying: 
"The President does not covet Cuba for the United States. At the 
same time he considers the condition of Cuba as mainly an American 
question." In 1854 a resolution was introduced into the Senate 
which declared that the Monroe Doctrine appHed directly to the 
Cuban question, a statement which the Senate strongly indorsed. 

Other international questions arose about 1845. One of these 
had to do with the annexation of Texas, to which France and Eng- 
land were opposed, hoping, perhaps, to get a footing in the Lone 
Star Republic themselves. The other concerned Oregon, which 
England was seeking to occupy. James K. Polk, of Tennessee, 
was then President, and in his message of 1845 the Monroe Doctrine 
was again strongly asserted from the executive chair. Concerning 
the Texas question he used these words: 

" It is well known to the American people and to all nations that 
this government has never interfered with the relations subsisting 
between other governments. We have never made ourselves parties 
to their wars or their alliances; we have not sought their territory by 
conquest; we have not mingled with parties in their domestic 
struggles; and, believing our own form of government to be the best, 
we have never attempted to propagate it by intrigues, by diplomacy, 
or by force. We may claim on this continent a like exemption from 
European interference. The nations of America are equally 
sovereign and independent with those of Europe. They possess the 
same rights, independent of all foreign interposition, to make war, 
to conclude peace, and to regulate their internal affairs. The people 
of the United States cannot, therefore, view with indifference 
attempts of European powers to interfere with the independent 
action of the nations on this continent." 

In regard to the Oregon question he quoted the Monroe state- 
ment concerning European colonization, and said, "This principle 
will apply with greatly increased force should any European power 
attempt to establish any new colony in North America. In the 
existing circumstances of the world the present is deemed a proper 




INCLINE RAILWAY AT CHATTANOOGA. 
This view was taken from the city, and shows one of the railways 
which ascend Lookont Monntain. Chattanooga began to be important 
during the Civil War, when it became a place of strategical value. Its 
situation in the midst of vast mineral and forest resources after the 
war gave the city tremendous advantages, and it is to-day one of the 
leading manufacturing towns of the United States. 



The Monroe Doctrine 229 

occasion to reiterate and reaffirm the principle avowed by Mr. 
Monroe, and to state rny cordial concurrence in its wisdom and 
sound policy. " 

In 1848 President Polk was again forced to an expression of 
opinion on this subject. This time Yucatan was involved. The 
Indians there were in arms and threatened to exterminate the whites, 
and the latter appealed for aid, offering "The dominion and sover- 
eignty of the peninsula" to the United States, England or France, if 
either would come to their rescue. The President declined to accept 
this offer, and requested Congress to adopt measures "to prevent 
Yucatan from becoming a colony of any European power, which in 
no event could be permitted by the United States. " 

It will be perceived that the Monroe Doctrine was far from 
being a dead letter, but was strongly .asserted on several important 
occasions during its first thirty years. The next occasion arose 
during the Civil War., France took that promising opportunity 
to take possession of Mexico and establish an empire upon its soil. 
The Government at Washington objected mildly but France went 
on. Congress, in 1864, grew indignant, and seemed strongly inclined 
to declare war against France, but the prudent counsels of President 
Lincoln induced this body to bide its time. Its time came when the 
war was over, when President Lincoln had passed away, and when 
Andrew Johnson, a second Tennessee President, occupied the 
executive chair. 

France, was now given plainly to understand that it must 
vacate or fight. General Sheridan had been sent to Texas, and 
was on the frontier with a powerful army of Civil War veterans, 
who still had the instinct of fight strongly within them, and were 
so eager to cross the Rio Grande and drive the French out of Mexico 
that they could hardly be restrained. But the government would 
not let loose these "dogs of war." Diplomacy came first; war 
was kept back as a last resort. Diplomacy did the work. Napoleon 
III dallied and delayed. The pill offered him was a bitter one to 
swallow. He had put his foot in deeply and hated to withdraw. 
But the lion^s claws were plainly visible. He was told, in November, 
1866, that he must go, and go at once. He delayed for some months 
still, and then swallowed his pill and withdrew his troops. Through- 
out the whole affair the Monroe Doctrine had not been once men- 
tioned. Yet Its end was the most signal triumph for that Doctrine 
which had ever been given. 



230 



The Monroe Doctrine 



For thirty years after this event the Monroe Doctrine was per- 
mitted to sleep. Europe kept out of American affairs. It looked 
askance upon the phenomenal growth of the giant across the seas 
and deemed it wise to let America alone. Then came another 
affair, this time between Great Britain and Venezuela, in which 
once more the United States took a hand. The trouble arose in a 




GROVER CLEVELAND 

Who vigorously upheld the Monroe Doctrine. 

(1837 Two terms. 1885-1889—1893-1897.) 

boundary dispute between British Guiana and the South American 
State, which had existed from 1840. By 1876 it became acute, and 
Venezuela appealed for protection to the United States, claiming 
that land belonging to her had been unjustly seized. In 1886 the 
trouble again became urgent. Great Britain occupying territory 



The Monroe Doctrine 231 

near the mouth of the Orinoco. All this country did was to offer to 
arbitrate the dispute. This was decHned and the trouble went on. 

It was not until 1895 that the Government at Washington felt 
it incumbent upon it to take a hand in the game. It was growing 
evident that the Monroe Doctrine had been violated, and President 
Cleveland deemed it his duty to interfere. A hot war of words 
arose between Attorney-General Olney and Lord Salisbury, one 
asserting and the other denying that the Monroe Doctrine was 
involved, and the President made the matter pubHc in this annual 
message to Congress of 1895. We need not go into the details of 
what followed. A commission to investigate the boundary question 
was appointed by the President, who asked for an appropriation to 
pay its expenses, and plainly hinted at warHke measures to prevent 
Great Britain from taking any lands which were found to belong 
to Venezuela. The lion was now showing both claws and teeth. 

The commission examined a small mountain of evidence. But 
before it was ready to report Great Britain backed down and agreed 
to the arbitration which it had long obstinately refused. A court 
of arbitration was appointed composed of the leading judicial 
dignitaries of Great Britain and the United States, with Professor 
Martens, a distinguished Russian authority on international law, 
as the fifth member of the court. Its meeting took place in 1899, 
the evidence collected by the commission was thoroughly considered, 
and a decision was rendered which was a compromise between the two 
powers. Once more the Monroe Doctrine had triumphed, and the 
unofficial position of the United States as the guardian of the 
weaker American powers had been sustained. 

Two years passed on, and English public sentiment underwent 
a radical change. A disposition to accept the Monroe Doctrine 
was shown. The London Spectator of November, 1901, said: "If 
America will define the Monroe Doctrine, why should we not pledge 
ourselves not to infringe upon it .^ If the Monroe Doctrine became 
part of the law of the civiHzed world, the risk of a war breaking out 
with regard to European interference in Brazil or Spanish America, 
now always a possibility, would pass away. " 

This was not the sentiment in Germany. There a hungry 
desire to lay hold of certain portions of South America was manifest, 
and the German press openly declared that the colonizing action of 
Germany might lead to a trial of strength between the German and 



232 The Monroe Doctrine 

American navies. It was probably this defiant talk in Germany 
that led President Roosevelt, in his message of December, 1901, to 
reassert in strong words the doctrine which Monroe and Polk had 
long before advanced. He said further: "We do not guarantee 
any State against punishment if it misconducts itself, provided that 
punishment does not take the form of acquisition of territory by any 
non-American powers." 

The German boast about their navy brought out the following 
significant words: "Our people intended to abide by the Monroe 
Doctrine and to insist upon it as the one strong means of securing 
the peace of the Western Hemisphere. The navy offers us the only 
means of making our insistence upon the Monroe Doctrine anything 
but a subject of derision to whatever nation chooses to disregard it. 
We desire the peace which comes of right to the strong man armed, 
not the peace granted in terms of ignominy to the craven and the 
weakling." 

Thus was the great doctrine which had ruled in American affairs 
throughout the nineteenth century reaffirmed in the opening year 
of the twentieth. That it still meant more than words was shown 
before the end of 1902, when Germany, Great Britain and Italy 
blockaded the coast of Venezuela, ostensibly for the collection of debts, 
though Germany showed an inclination to go farther. Once more 
the United States spoke, and 'once more Europe heard and yielded. 
The blockade was broken and the indebtedness of Venezue- 
la left to be settled by arbitration instead of by force of arms. 

In these various ways the great Doctrine, origiriated by Southern 
statesmen, but accepted as the fixed policy of the United States, was 
sustained on the several occasions when European powers sought 
to disregard it. We cannot better close this subject than by a 
quotation from Secretary Olney's striking argument of 1895: 

"Thus far in our history we have been spared the burdens and 
evils of immense standing armies and all the other accessories of 
huge warlike establishments; and the exemption has highly con- 
tributed to our national greatness and wealth, as well as to the 
happiness of every citizen. But with the Powers of Europe per- 
manently encamped on American sod, the ideal conditions we have 
thus far enjoyed cannot be expected to continue." 

This is so true, and it is so evident that still worse results might 
accrue from the condition stated, that the United States seems 



The Monroe Doctrine 233 

abundantly justified in jealously guarding American soil from 
foreign domination, and insisting, more strenuously than ever, upon 
the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine. President Roosevelt 
strongly reiterated his views on the subject in later messages than 
those quoted from, and in the Pan-American Conference held at 
Rio de Janeiro in 1906, a new doctrine was adopted, known as the 
Drago Doctrine, which vigorously declared that no nation has a 
right, forcibly, to undertake to collect debts due its citizens by 
another nation. Such forcible collection implies territorial occupa- 
tion, and is therefore claimed to be dangerous to the independence 
of the nation thus assailed and inconsistent with the Monroe 
Doctrine. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CLAY AND CALHOUN, THE GREAT 

SOUTHERN ORATORS OF THE 

"GOLDEN AGE" 

The South a nursery of orators — The boyhood of Henry Clay — His gift of oratory — 
Clay in Kentucky — Speaker of the House — Clay's great popularity — The Mis- 
souri Compromise — Campaigns of 1824 ^"^ 1844 — Defeated and in debt — The 
Tariff Compromise — ^The Compromise of 1850 — Clay's character — Calhoun's 
character and early history — The Nullification Doctrine — Webster and Hayne — 
Threats of war— Calhoun's great Force Bill speech — Miss Martineau on Calhoun 
and Clay — Calhoun's last days. 

THE South was long the nursery of American orators, men born 
on the plantation, leaders in local politics, educated in 
oratory in legislative halls, trained with the broad outlook of 
statesmen, and with a deep and abiding genius in the management 
of national affairs. We have already spoken of those early giants 
in debate, Henry, Madison, Lee, Marshall, Rutledge, Laurens, 
Gadsden and others, who made their fame in the days of the Revolu- 
tion and gave us the Constitution. The century that followed 
brought successors of far-reaching fame, Randolph, Wirt, Hayne, 
Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Crittenden, and others of high note. Here 
is a list of names far too great for the space at our command, and we 
must confine ourselves to the two greatest and ablest among them, 
Henry Clay, of whom Parton says, "Take him for all in all we must 
regard him as the first of American orators," and John C. Calhoun, 
whose fiery earnestness and keen logic gave him one of the loftiest 
positions in what has been well named "the Golden Age of American 
oratory. " 

In Henry Clay we have to do with a true son of the South, a 
scion of the country in its making, a Virginian born in the midst of 
that mortal struggle which was to give independence to the colonies. 
He came into the world in the darkest days or the Revolution, in i ']']^i 

234 



Great Southern Orators 



235 



the year of the defeats of Brandywine and Germantown and the loss 
of Philadelphia, the capital of the young nation. His parents were 
poor. His father died and left the widowed mother with seven 




HENRY CLAY 

One of the Greatest of American Orators and Statesmen. Born in Virginia in 1777, he later made 
his home in Kentucky and there rose to his greatest prominence. He died in 1852. 

young buds of promise on her hands. The boy had his own 
career to, make from the ground upward. We find him going bare- 
foot to school, in a little log hut without windows or floor, where he 



236 Great Southern Orators 

picked up the barest rudiments of education. His chief school was 
the world at large, but he found it a college full of useful lessons for 
one with will to learn. 

Next we find him, still a child, helping his mother; tilling her 
fields, going miles to mill with his bag of corn strapped on the family 
horse, the barefoot "Mill-boy of the Slashes," as he was afterward 
called. At fourteen, an errand boy's place was found for him in a 
drug store in Richmond. At fifteen he became a clerk in the office 
of the Court of Chancery. A tall, slender, awkward lad he was, 
dressed in the costume of the backwoods, so uncouth in appearance as 
to draw smiles behind his back from his fellow clerks. But the boy 
grew graceful as he grew older. There was always something about 
him winning, something commanding. He was never handsome, 
but his broad forehead, ruddy face, and the speaking intelligence of 
his countenance were of more moment than regular features, and 
everywhere he won friends and admirers. 

Of all Clay's gifts the greatest physical one was his voice, 
unique and admirable in its tones and powers. There was a depth 
of tone in it, a volume, a compass, a rich and tender harmony, which 
invested all he said with majesty. Parton writes that he heard it 
last when Clay was an old man, past seventy; and all he said was a 
few words of acknowledgment to a group of ladies in the largest 
hall in Philadelphia. "He spoke only in the ordinary tone of con- 
versation; but his voice filled the room as the organ fills a great 
cathedral, and the ladies stood spellbound as the swelling cadences 
rolled about the vast apartment. We have heard much of White- 
field's piercing voice and Patrick Henry's silvery tones, but we 
cannot beheve that either of those natural orators possessed an 
organ superior to Clay's majestic bass. No one who ever heard 
him speak will find it difficult to believe what tradition reports, that 
he was the peerless star of the Richmond Debating Society in 1795.'* 

But his voice was only the instrument of his power as an orator. 
Behind it was his mind, vigorous in power, alert in thought, inspired 
with enthusiasm and intelligence, logical and persuasive, the deep 
foundation to which that noblest of voices gave living force. He was 
born to win men's souls and sway their minds, and he showed this 
power even in his boyhood days of clerkhood and legal study. 

Becoming a lawyer, young Clay soon found that Richmond 
was not the place for his talents. Opportunities for money-making 



Great Southern Orators 237 

were small there, and he followed his mother to Kentucky, whither 
she had removed years before. He was not yet twenty-one when he 
reached this as yet untamed wilderness, bent to "grow up with the 
country." He hung out his shingle in the new town of Lexington 
with scarce a dollar in his pocket and all his wealth in his head. 
But he did not have to wait long for business, and in less than two 
years after his arrival at Lexington, in April, 1799, he had achieved 
a position enabling him to take a helpmate. He asked for and 
obtained the hand of Lucretia Hart, the daughter of a man of high 
character and prominent standing in the state. She was a very 
estimable woman, and a most devoted wife to him. His prosperity 
now increased rapidly; and soon he was able to purchase Ashland, 
an estate of some six hundred acres, near Lexington, which afterward 
became famous as Henry Clay's home. 

Such was Henry Clay's early career, and such the steps of 
progress which led him into the position of one of the leading men 
in the young state of Kentucky. Thinly settled as it still was, the 
new state offered excellent opportunities to men of ability, and Clay 
was soon lifted upon a high wave. His abihty as a lawyer, his 
powers as an orator, carried him rapidly upward, his fellow citizens 
soon deemed him worthy of representing them in the legislature, and 
before he reached the age of thirty his fellow legislators sent him 
to the United States Senate, to fill a year's unexpired term of a 
retiring Senator. This was rapid progress, and we may well 
imagine to what it was due, the effect of his splendid voice and 
brilliant powers of oratory upon those backwoods legislators. "At 
thirty," says Parton, "he was, to use the language of the stump, 
'Kentucky's favorite son,' and incomparably the finest orator in the 
Western country." Jefferson, the father of the Declaration of 
Independence, was then in the Presidential chair, and Clay was one 
of his chief admirers and champions. He looked upon him as the 
best and greatest of men, and defended him warmly on the poHtical 
stump and in legislative and senatorial halls. 

In 181 1, when he was thirty-four years old. Clay's great career 
fairly began. Elected to the House of Representatives at Wash- 
ington, he was immediately chosen Speaker of the House by the 
party favoring war with England, a party in which Clay had made 
himself a leader. Except for a brief interval, when he was one of 
the Commissioners to arrange terms of peace with Great Britain, 



238 Great Southern Orators 

he remained at the head of the House until 1825. He 
was confessedly the best presiding officer that great body has 
ever known. His powers were often severely tried, for party 
feehng was intense and bitter during the earher years of his Speak- 
ership, but he always maintained his position with dignity and 
effectiveness. 

It is agreed that to Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, more than to any other individual, we owe the War of 
18 1 2. When the House hesitated, it was he who, descending from 
the chair, spoke so as to reassure it. When President Madison 
faltered, it was the stimulus of Clay's resistless persistance that put 
heart into him again. Clay it was whose clarion notes rang out over 
departing regiments, and kindled within them the martial fire; and 
it was Clay's speeches which the soldiers loved to read by the camp- 
fire. When the war was going all wrong in the first year. President 
Madison wished to appoint Clay commander-in-chief of the land 
forces; but, said Gallatin, "What shall we do without him in the 
House of Representatives ?" 

On the floor of the house, Mr. Clay was often impetuous in 
discussion, and delighted to reheve the tedium of debate, and 
modify the bitterness of antagonism, by a sportive jest or hvely 
repartee. On one occasion. General Smythe of Virginia, who often 
afflicted the House by the dryness and verbosity of his harangues, 
had paused in the middle of a speech, which seemed hkely to endure 
forever, to send to the library for a book from which he wished to 
note a passage. Fixing his eye on Mr. Clay, he observed the 
Kentuckian writhing in his seat, as if his patience had already been 
exhausted. "You, sir," remarked Smythe, addressing him, 
"speak for the present generation; but I speak for posterity." 
"Yes," said Clay, "and you seem resolved to speak until the arrival 
of your audience." 

Only once in the course of his long representative career was 
Clay obliged to canvass for his election, and he was never defeated, 
nor ever could be before a pubhc that he could personally meet 
and address. The one searching ordeal to which he was subjected 
followed the passage of the "Compensation Act" of 18 16, whereby 
Congress substituted for its per diem rate a fixed salary of ^1500 to 
each member. This act excited great hostility, especially in the 
west, then very poor. 



Great Southern Orators 239 

While canvassing the district, Mr. Clay encountered an old 
hunter, who had always before been his warm friend, but was now 
opposed to his reelection on account of the Compensation Bill. 
"Have you a good rifle, my friend?" asked Mr. Clay. "Yes.", 
"Did it ever flash.?" "Once only," he replied. "What did you 
do with it, — throw it away?" "No; I picked the flint, tried it 
again, and brought down the game." "Have I ever flashed, but 
upon the Compensation Bill?" "No!" "Will you throw me 
away ?" "No, no!" exclaimed the hunter with enthusiasm, nearly 
overpowered by his feelings; "I will pick the flint, and try you 
again!" He was ever afterward a warm supporter of Mr. Clay. 

Not often does a man whose life is spent in purely civil affairs 
become such a popular hero and idol as did Clay — especially when 
it was his fate never to reach the highest place in the people's gift. 
"Was there ever," says Parton, "a pubHc man, not at the head of a 
state, so beloved as he ? Who ever heard such cheers, so hearty, 
distinct and ringing, as those which his name evoked ? Men shed 
tears at his defeat, and women went to bed sick from pure sympathy 
with his disappointment. He could not travel during the last thirty 
years of his life, but only make progresses. When he left home the 
public seized him and bore him along over the land, the committee 
of one state passing him on to the committee of another, and the 
hurrahs of one town dying away as those of the next caught his ear. " 
One evidence of his popularity is the great number of children 
named in his honor. An English woman traveling in America 
during the Presidential canvass of 1844 writes that at least three- 
fourths of all the boy babies born in that year must have been named 
for Henry Clay. "Even now, more than thirty years after his 
death," says Carl Schurz, writing in 1886, "we may hear old men, 
who knew him in the days of his strength, speak of him with an 
enthusiasm and affection so warm and fresh as to convince us that 
the recollection of having followed his leadership is among the 
dearest treasures of their memory." 

During the period of Clay's term as Speaker his voice was often 
heard in speeches of controlling power. But he first stood before 
the country as one of its ablest and greatest men in the long and 
exciting contest on the admission of Missouri as a slave state. 
Clay, while not the originator of the famous "Missouri Compromise," 
was one of its chief supporters, and his name is indissolubly con-- 



240 Great Southern Orators 

nected with it. It was due to him, above all men, that this great 
compromise bill was carried through. It was a noble work, for 
the very existence of the Union was threatened in the hot controversy 
that raged in House and Senate. "Clay," says Schurz, "did not 
confine himself to speeches,. . . but went from man to man, 
expostulating, beseeching, persuading, in his most winning way. . . 
His success added greatly to his reputation and gave new strength 
to his influence." The result, says John Quincy Adams, was "to 
bring into full display the talents and resources and influence of 
Mr. Clay." He was praised as "the great pacificator," — a char- 
acter which was confirmed by the deeds of his later fife. 

In the election of 1824 Clay was one of four candidates for the 
Presidency of the United States. Andrew Jackson received the 
highest number of electoral votes, and John Ouincy Adams the 
next highest, but no candidate had a majority and the decision went 
to the House of Representatives, which had authority to choose 
between the three candidates having the largest number of votes. 
Clay was Speaker of the House; and as his influence at this time 
was very great, it was at once perceived that he had it practically 
within his power to decide the choice; and the friends of both 
Jackson and Crawford began to pay assiduous court to him. He, 
however, promptly declared his intention of using his influence to 
secure the choice of Adams; whereupon the Jackson party, a few 
days before the election^ publicly accused him of having sold his 
influence to Adams under a "corrupt bargain," by which Clay was 
to be given the Secretaryship of State in payment for making Adams 
President. The charge was unfounded, but it was kept alive for 
years and did great injury to Clay in his later career. Jackson, who 
never forgave those whom he deemed his enemies, bore a bitter 
grudge against Clay, and the time came in which he was able to 
make his power felt. 

The time came in 1844, when Clay was again a candidate for 
the Presidency. He had unwisely run against Jackson in 1832, 
when defeat was sure. In 1840, when the Whig party had a clear 
"walk over" before it, Clay was set aside in favor of General 
Harrison, a shght which bitterly stung him. "I am the most 
unfortunate man in the history of parties," he said; "always run 
by my friends when sure to be defeated, and now betrayed for a 
nomination when I or any one else would be sure of an election." 



Great Southern Orators 



241 




STATUE TO HENRY CLAY 

This beautiful marble statue to Henry Clay was erected in the Capitol 
Square, Richmond, Virginia, by the Ladies' Clay Association. 



16 



242 Great Southern Orators 

In 1844 he was unanimously nominated and again success seemed 
certain. But there were new elements in the situation, hard to 
estimate. 

The "Liberty party" — the Anti-slavery faction — was now in 
the field, and Clay, as a slaveholder, was deserted by many of the 
Northern Whigs. His support of the annexation of Texas also 
lost him votes among those who opposed this measure, and his old 
enemy Jackson took the opportunity to give him a stinging thrust. 
Letters came from the "Hermitage" which reviewed the old story 
of the "bargain and corruption" in 1825, when Clay had prac- 
tically elected Adams and was made Secretary of State. False as 
this calumny was, many believed it. 

As the campaign went on its managers began to feel some 
doubt, in spite of the immense popularity of their candidate, but 
the masses of the Whigs felt sure of success to the very last. It 
seemed impossible to them that Henry Clay could be defeated by an 
almost unknown man like James K. Polk. As in the Cleveland 
and Blaine contest, forty years later, everything at last depended 
on New York, and the returns from the interior of that state came 
in very slowly. There seemed to be still a possibihty that heavy 
Whig majorities in the western counties might overcome the large 
Democratic vote in the eastern. The suspense was painful. People 
did not go to bed, watching for the mails. When at last the decisive 
news went forth which left no doubt of the result, the Whigs broke 
out in a wail of agony all over the land. "It was," says Nathan 
Sargent, "as if the first-born of every family had been stricken down." 
The descriptions we have of the grief manifested are almost 
incredible. Tears flowed in abundance from the eyes of men and 
women. In the cities and villages the business places were almost 
deserted for a day or two, people gathering together in groups to 
discuss in low tones what had happened. Neither did the victorious 
Democrats indulge in the usual demonstrations of triumph. There 
was a feeling as if a great wrong had been done. The Whigs were 
fairly stunned by their defeat. Many despaired of the republic, 
sincerely believing that the experiment of popular government had 
failed forever. Almost all agreed that the great statesmen of the 
country would thenceforth always remain excluded from the presi- 
dency, and that the highest office would be the prize only of second- 
rate politicians. 



Great Southern Orators 243 

Clay's hopes of the Presidency were forever gone and the 
disappointment was a bitter one to him. But he had other and 
more immediate troubles. He was a comparatively poor man, 
one of his sons had failed in business, pubhc Hfe has its inevitable 
costs, and he was in imminent danger of losing Ashland, his beloved 
home, which was heavily mortgaged. How to meet his debts 
without selling his home he knew not, but here was a dilemma in 
which his friends could aid him. ReHef came to him suddenly, and 
in an unexpected form. When offering a payment to the bank at 
Lexington, the president informed him that sums of money had 
arrived from different parts of the country to pay off Henry Clay's 
debts, and that all the notes and the mortgage were canceled. Clay 
was deeply moved. "Who did this.^" he asked the banker. All 
the answer he received was that the givers were unknown, but they 
were presumably "not his enemies." Clay doubted whether he 
should accept the gift, and consulted some of his friends. They 
reminded him of the many persons of historic renown who had not 
refused tokens of admiration and gratitude from their countrymen; 
and added that, as he could not discover the unknown givers, he 
could not return the gift; and, as the gift appeared in the shape of a 
discharged obligation, he could not force the renewal of the debt. 
At last he consented to accept, and thus was Ashland saved to him. 

Now to return to the story of Clay's public life. There are 
three great events in the history of the country during his Con- 
gressional career with which his name is indissolubly connected. 
One of these was the Missouri Compromise above spoken of. A 
second was the Tariff Compromise of 1833. A third was the 
Compromise of 1850. In all of these Clay showed himself "the 
great pacificator," the healer of wounds, the appeaser of passions, 
the unflinching advocate of peace and union. In 1829, ^fter the 
end of his term as Secretary of State, Clay went to his beautiful 
Kentucky home for a period of rest. But his host of admirers in 
Kentucky would not let him stay there, and sent him to the Senate 
in 1831. He entered it in stormy times. There was the smell of 
powder in air. The high tariff" then existing told strongly against 
the prosperity of the South. Bitter words were said about it, and 
vain efforts to repeal it were made; as nothing could be done in this 
direction, Calhoun and other leaders in South Carolina determined 
to treat it as "null and void." The doctrine of "nullification," 



244 Great Southern Orators 

perilous to the Union as it was, was set afloat, and the halls of Con- 
gress rang with the voices of those masters of oratory, Webster, 
Calhoun, Hayne and others of abiUty. 

Jackson the vehement dealt with the nullifiers as he had done 
with the British at New Orleans. He fired hot shot into their 
camp, threatening the leaders with arrest and trial for treason if 
they persisted. In these days of imminent danger Henry Clay 
came to the rescue. He devised and carried through congress a 
compromise tariff providing for a gradual reduction of duties, 
until in ten years they would reach a minimum of twenty per cent. 
This proved satisfactory to the South, the discontent was allayed, 
and once more a great peril to the Union passed away. 

The last and greatest pubhc work of Clay's fife was the famous 
Compromise of 1850, which, as has often been said, postponed for 
ten years the great Civil War. In 1849 he was unanimously elected 
United States Senator by the Kentucky Legislature, in spite of the 
well-known fact that his views on the slavery question were dis- 
tasteful, to a large number of his constituents. The truth is that 
they saw that a storm was gathering, and relied on Clay's wisdom 
and patriotism to meet the emergency. The sentiment against 
slavery was increasing in the North. The free states were out- 
stripping the slave states in wealth and population, and the growing 
expression of opinion in the North was one that both alarmed and 
exasperated the South. The division of sentiment between the 
two sections grew intense, and it was evident that prompt measures 
must be taken to allay the irritation if the stabiHty of the Union was 
to be assured. In this critical state of affairs all eyes turned to Henry 
Clay, the great peace-maker, and he responded nobly to the appeal. 
In his view the questions at issue could be settled by legislative 
action and he put himself to the almost hopeless task. 

When, in the session of 1849-50, he appeared in the Senate 
with the earnest desire to remove the slavery question from pohtics. 
Clay was an old man of seventy-two, a veteran warrior who was still 
in the Hsts of warfare after half a century of service. The marks 
of age were upon him, but he was hopeful still. His cheerfulness and 
faith remained, though anxiety for the destiny of his beloved country 
filled his soul. Never had he worked so faithfully and hard. 
During that memorable session of Congress he spoke seventy times. 
Often sick and feeble, scarcely able, even with friendly aid, to chmb 



Great Southern Orators 



245 



the Capitol steps, he was never absent when the Compromise Bill 
was before the Senate. On the morning of his greatest speech on 
this subject he was accompanied by a clerical friend, to whom he 




JOHN C. CALHOUN 

The great South Carolinian Orator and Statesman. 



said, on reaching the long flight of steps leading to the Capitol, 
"Will you lend me your arm, my friend .f* for I find myself quite 
weak and exhausted this morning. " Every few steps he was obliged 
to stop and take breath. "Had you not better defer your speech ?" 



246 Great Southern Orators 

asked the clergyman. "My dear friend," said the dying orator, 
"I consider our country in danger; and if I can be the means, in any 
measure, of averting that danger, my health or life is of little con- 
sequence." When he rose to speak, it was but too evident that he 
was unfit for the task he had undertaken. But as he kindled with 
his subject, his cough left him, and his bent form resumed all its 
wonted erectness and majesty. He may, in the prime of his strength, 
have spoken with more energy, but never with so much pathos or 
grandeur. His speech lasted two days; and though he lived two 
years longer, he never recovered from its effect on his strength. 

"Who can estimate," says Parton, "the influence of these 
clear and emphatic utterances ten years after .? The crowded 
galleries, the numberless newspaper reports, the quickly succeeding 
death of the great orator, all aided to give them currency and effect. 
We shall never know how many wavering minds they aided to decide 
in 1861. Not that Mr. Clay really believed the conflict would occur; 
he was mercifully permitted to die in the conviction that the Com- 
promise of 1850 had removed all immediate danger, and greatly 
lessened that of the future." 

"Whatever Clay's weaknesses of character and errors in 
statesmanship may have been," says Schurz, in his admirable 
biography of Henry Clay, "almost everything he said or did was 
illumined by a grand conception of the destinies of his country, a 
glowing national spirit, a lofty patriotism. Whether he thundered 
against British tyranny on the seas, or urged the recognition of the 
South American sister republics, or attacked the high-handed con- 
duct of the military chieftain in the Florida war, or advocated pro- 
tection and internal improvements, or assailed the one-man power 
and spoils politics in the person of Andrew Jackson, or entreated 
for compromise and conciliation regarding the tariff or slavery; 
whether what he advocated was wise or unwise, right or wrong; 
there was always ringing through his words a fervid plea for his 
country, a zealous appeal in behalf of the honor and the future 
greatness and glory of the Republic, or an anxious warning lest the 
Union, and with it the greatness and glory of the American people, 
be put in jeopardy. It was a just judgment which he pronounced 
upon himself when he wrote: 'If any one desires to know the leading 
and paramount object of my public life, the preservation of the 
Union will furnish him the key, ' " 



Great Southern Orators 247 

Such is the story of Henry Clay, the great Kentucky peace- 
maker. Now we have to do with another famous orator of the 
Southland, John C. Calhoun, the great South Carolina legislative 
warrior, a man whose voice was for war as that of Clay was for peace. 
His was a unique figure in American history. He beheved to his 
heart's core in the institution of Slavery, that it was morally and 
politically right, that it was beneficial to white and black alike, and 
that the whole welfare of the country was dependent on its contin- 
uence. No one can doubt his sincerity in this belief. He was one of 
the most honest and upright of men. In him there was no conceal- 
ment or falsehood, no fear of result or shadow of turning and his 
honesty and ability gave him a far-reaching influence. His own 
state had the deepest trust in him and the warmest faith in his 
doctrines, and no man in America did more than he to support and 
sustain the South in the sentiments which were to lead to one of the 
greatest conflicts the world has known. 

Calhoun was born in Abbeyville, South CaroHna, in 1782, five 
years after Clay, and in the same year with his great adversary of 
later times, Daniel Webster. The Revolution had just ended. 
For several years the South had borne the brunt of the war and its 
people were deeply impoverished. Calhoun's father, a north of 
Ireland immigrant, died when the boy was nineteen, and he had his 
own way to make. But he was bent on having an education, and 
he got it, working his way with honors through Yale College. He 
was a democrat in grain, declared that the people were the true 
source of power, and maintained this declaration so strongly and ably 
against President Dwight of Yale, as to induce the latter to sav that 
Calhoun had ability enough to be a President of the United States. 

After two years in the South Carolina Legislature, Calhoun was 
elected to Congress in 18 10, where he served until 18 17, when he 
became Secretaiy of War under President Monroe. In 1824 he was 
elected Vice-President, under John Quincy Adams, and again in 
1828, when Andrew Jackson was elected President. In 1832 he 
resigned the Vice-Presidency to become Senator from South Caro- 
lina, and remained in the Senate during nearly all the remainder of 
his life. 

In 1828 Congress passed a tariff bill by which the protective 
duties were considerably increased. This bill was bitterly opposed 
in the South, where it was styled the "Tariff of Abominations j" 



248 Great Southern Orators 

and on its passage Calhoun prepared a most remarkable paper, called 
the "South Carolina Exposition," in which he maintained that the 
Constitution authorized Congress to levy tariff taxes only for revenue; 
that protective taxes were therefore unconstitutional; and that a 
state had the right and power to declare an unconstitutional law null 
and void, and to forbid its execution in that state. It was the purpose 
of the people of South Carolina to agitate for the repeal of the obnox- 
ious law; and, in case their efforts should fail, to resort to the remedy 
of nuUilication. This paper was issued in December, 1828. In 
March, 1829, the new government, Jackson at its head, came into 
power. Calhoun, being reelected Vice-President, still held his 
chair as President of the Senate. 

In 1829 the long debate over the question. Does the Constitution 
make us one sovereign nation, or only a league of sovereign States ^ 
was at its height. That debate had begun as soon as the Constitu- 
tion was ratified, in 1788, and was heard at intervals until the out- 
break of the war in 1 86 1 . For many years the theory of a " compact," 
from which a state might withdraw at will, was maintained by various 
advocates, of whom Calhoun was the foremost. He supported his 
view with great abihty and ingenuity and with industry and devotion 
which never flagged or wavered. In his own state his doctrines 
were accepted with almost complete unanimity; and the Senators 
and Representatives in Congress from South CaroHna were all 
disciples of the Calhoun school. In the Senate, as he was the presid- 
ing officer, he could not take an active part in debate; but he had an 
able supporter in General Robert Y. Hayne, who was a strong and 
eloquent speaker. In January, 1830, the agitation in Congress 
culminated in the famous encounter of Hayne with Daniel Webster. 
Hayne had maintained that nullification was a constitutional remedy, 
— a "reserved right." Webster, the acknowledged greatest of 
American orators, responded with his most vigorous effort. Witk 
a power of satire under which Hayne writhed in his seat, he drew a 
picture of practical nullification; he declared that an attempt to 
nullify the laws of the nation was treason, that it led directly and 
necessarily to armed force, and was nothing less than revolution. 

South Carolina accepted the decision and proceeded to revolu- 
tion. The tariff of 1828 was not repealed; and after the presidential 
election of 1832, under the direction of Calhoun, who had resigned 
the Vice-Presidency, a convention of the people of the state was 



Great Southern Orators 



249 



called, which passed the famous "Ordinance of NuUification," 
declaring the tariff law of 1828 null and void in South Carohna. 
This daring step, for which Calhoun must be given the chief 
credit, roused the people of the country to an intense excitement. It 
had the force of a declaration of war, and apprehension of an 
appeal to arms and a 




dissolution of the 
Union everywhere 
prevailed. Events 
pointing in that direc- 
tion came with start- 
ling rapidity. On 
December, 10, 1832, 
appeared the memor- 
able proclamation 
from President Jack- 
son, in which he de- 
clared that he would 
meet any attempt at 
disunion with the force 
necessary to put it 
down. Governor 
Hayne —Webster's late 
opponent — replied 
with a counter-proc- 
lamation in which he 
defended the action 
of the state. He went 
further and called out 
12,000 volunteers. War 
seemed at hand. Uni- ^^^^ tyler 

I^ The first vice-President to become President. (1790-1S62) One partial 

sent by the President to term, 1841-1845.) 

Augusta and Charleston. Naval vessels were ordered to Charleston 
harbor. The State militia in certain sections, were called out, armed 
and drilled, and depots of suppHes were prepared. Army officers, 
natives of the state, were ready to resign their commissions and 
head the State forces, and some foreign military officers in the 
country went so far as to offer their services to Governor Hayne. 



250 Great Southern Orators 

Calhoun took his seat in the Senate on the 4th of January, 1833, 
in the heat of this situation, as the great champion of nuUification, 
and on the 15th and i6th of February he made one of the most 
powerful speeches of his Kfe in opposition to what was known as the 
"Force Bill," the object of which was to enable the President to 
collect the revenue in South Carohna by forcible means. A brief 
quotation from this great effort in oratory cannot fail to be of interest. 
Calhoun said, referring to the bill: 

" It has been said by the senator from Tennessee (Mr. Grundy) 
to be a measure of peace! Yes, such peace as the wolf gives to the 
lamb — the kite to the dove. Such peace as Russia gives to Poland, 
or death to its victim! A peace, by extinguishing the political exist- 
ence of the State, by awing her into an abandonment of the exercise 
of every power which constitutes her a sovereign community. It 
is to South Carohna a question of self-preservation; and I proclaim 
it, that should this bill pass, and an attempt be made to enforce it, 
it will be resisted at every hazard — even that of death itself. Death 
is not the greatest calamity: there are others still more terrible to the 
free and brave, and among them may be placed the loss of liberty 
and honor. There are thousands of her brave sons who, if need be, 
are prepared cheerfully to lay down their lives in defence of the 
State, and the great principles of constitutional liberty for which 
she is contending. God forbid that this should become necessary! 
It never can be, unless this government is resolved to bring the ques- 
tion to extremity, when her gallant sons will stand prepared to per- 
form the last duty — to die nobly. 

"In the same spirit, we are told that the Union must be pre- 
served, without regard to the means. And how is it proposed to 
preserve the Union ? By force! Does any man in his senses believe 
that this beautiful structure — this harmonious aggregate of states, 
produced by the joint consent of all — can be preserved by force .? 
Its very introduction will be the certain destruction of this Federal 
Union. No, no. You cannot keep the states united in their con- 
stitutional and Federal bonds by force. Force may, indeed, hold 
the parts together, but such union would be the bond between master 
and slave: a union of exaction on one side, and of unquahfied 
obedience on the other." 

In spite of Mr. Calhoun's efforts, the "Force Bill" was passed; 
and it is said that President Jackson privately warned him that the 



Great Southern Orators 



251 



moment news was received of resistance to the government in South 
CaroHna, he would be arrested on a charge of treason. But Con- 
gress was not disposed to push the quarrel to the bitter end. Henry 
Clay's Compromise Bill for the gradual reduction of the tariff was 
introduced and passed, and the stringency vanished. The arms 

which had been lifted 
in threat were let fall 
again, and the contro- 
versy ended in claims 
of victory on both sides. 
As for the doctrine of 
nullification, it re- 
mained unsettled. 

Miss Harriet Mar- 
tineau, who visited the 
United States at this 
time, has recorded, in 
he r "Retrospect of 
Western Travel," her 
impressions of Mr. 
Calhoun. She writes: — 
"Mr. Calhoun fol- 
lowed, and impressed 
me very strongly. 
While he kept to the 
question, what he said 
was close, good, and 
moderate, though de- 
DANIEL WEBSTER livered in rapid speech, 

a782-is52.) and with a voice not 

sufficiently modulated. But when he began to reply to a taunt of 
Colonel Benton's, that he wanted to be President, the force of his 
speaking became painful. He made protestations which it seemed 
to strangers had better have been spared, 'that he would not turn 
on his heel to be President,' and that 'he had given up all for his own 
brave, magnanimous little State of South Carolina.' While thus 
protesting, his eyes flashed, his brow seemed charged with thun- 
der, his voice became almost a bark, and his sentences were abrupt 
and intense. 




252 Great Southern Orators 

"Mr. Calhoun's countenance first fixed my attention; the 
splendid eye, the straight forehead, surmounted by a load of stiff, 
upright dark hair, the stern brow, the inflexible mouth, — it is one of 
the most remarkable heads in the country." 

Miss Martineau's sketch of the three great statesmen of the 
time is especially interesting: — 

"Mr. Clay sitting upright on the sofa, with his snuff-box ever 
in his hand, would discourse for many an hour in his even, soft, 
deliberate tone, on any one of the great subjects of American pohcy 
which we might happen to start, always amazing us with the mod- 
eration of estimate and speech which so impetuous a nature has been 
able to attain. Mr. Webster, leaning back at his ease, telling stories, 
cracking jokes, shaking the sofa with burst after burst of laughter, or 
smoothly discoursing to the perfect feUcity of the logical part of one's 
constitution, would illuminate an evening now and then. Mr. Cal- 
houn, the cast-iron man, who looks as if he had never been born and 
could never be extinguished, would come in sometimes to keep our 
understanding on a painful stretch for a short while, and leave us 
to take to pieces his close, rapid, theoretical, illustrated talk, and see 
what we could make of it. We found it usually more worth retaining 
as a curiosity, than as either very just or useful. 

"I know of no man who lives in such utter intellectual solitude. 
He meets men and harangues by the fireside as in the Senate; he is 
wrought hke a piece of machinery, set going vehemently by a weight 
and stops while you answer; he either passes by what you say, or 
twists it into a suitability with what is in his head, and begins to 
lecture again." 

Miss Martineau also saw Calhoun in South CaroHna, where he 
was the political teacher and guide, and the acknowledged chief: — 

"During my stay in Charleston, Mr. Calhoun and his family 
arrived from Congress, and there was something very striking in the 
welcome he received, Hke that of a chief returned to the bosom of his 
clan. He stalked about like a monarch of the httle domain, and 
there was certainly an air of mysterious understanding between him 
and his followers." 

The agitation of the slavery question, from 1835 to 1850, was 
chiefly the work of this one man. "The labors of Mr. Garrison and 
Mr. Wendell Phillips," says Parton, "might have borne no fruit 
during their lifetime, if Calhoun had not made it his business to 



Great Southern Orators 253 

supply them with material. 'I mean to force the issue upon the 
North,' he once wrote; and he did force it. The denial of the right 
of petition, the annexation of Texas, the forcing of slavery into the 
Territories, — these were among the issues upon which he hoped to 
unite the South in his favor, while retaining enough strength at the 
North to secure his election to the Presidency. Failing in all his 
schemes of personal advancement, he died in 1850, still protesting 
that slavery is divine, and that it must rule this country or ruin it." 
Calhoun's life came to an end in March, 1850, before the Com- 
promise Bill of that year had once more postponed the "irrepres- 
sible conflict." On the 4th of March his last speech was read 
in the Senate by a friend, he then being too weak to deliver it. 
Three days afterward, when Webster delivered his famous "7th of 
March Speech," Calhoun literally rose from his dying bed that he 
might be present, and sat for the last time in his accustomed seat, 
his rigid face and intense gaze giving him a weird and unearthly aspect. 
On the 24th of the same month he died; and his remains were taken 
to Charleston, there to mingle with the soil of the state to which he 
had given a Hfe's devotion, and which had rewarded him with 
unfailing love and honor. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE LONE STAR STATE, ITS HEROES 
AND ITS MARTYRS 

Texas and its settlers — Its size and resources — The revolt of the Americans — Hous- 
ton's early story — ^Heroes of the Texan War — The splendid defence of the Alamo 
— The Thermopylae of Texas — Houston's great victory — Texas admitted to the 
Union — The War spirit in Mexico — Southern leaders of the Mexican War — 
Results of the War — What Mexico lost and the United States won. 

THE 4th of July, 1845, the sixty-ninth anniversary of the birth 
of the great American repubhc, was signaHzed by a noble 
addition to its territory, while to the splendid galaxy of the 
South was added a giant star. This was the grand domain of Texas, 
known for an interval as the Lone Star Republic, but which on that 
date became a welcome member of the American Union. It was a 
magnificent accession to the South, adding to it a vast territory 
almost equal to half its former area and more than four times as 
large as any of its older states. Amply was it fitted to maintain 
itself as an independent country, possessing, as it did, resources of 
immense extent and ability to maintain a great population. But sons 
of the great republic had settled its soil and won its freedom, and in 
their souls was no higher hope or warmer aspiration than to come 
-again under the shadow of the starry flag, bringing their new land with 
them as a bright star to add to the American constellation. Hope- 
fully was the new state offered, warmly was it accepted, and Inde- 
pendence Day of 1845 was grandly celebrated by this splendid 
rounding off of our national territory to the southwest. 

It is not much to say that Texas has the area of a nation. It 
will be more to the point to say that it is larger than either France, 
Germany, or Austria, those proud and powerful historic nations of 

254 



Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 



^55 



ii^. 



Europe, and that it would make four New Englands or sixNew Yorks. 
To cross it from east to west one must travel 800 miles, or from north 
to south 750 miles, while it has a water line on the Gulf of Mexico 
375 miles in length. It would hold the whole present population of 
the United States and then be no more thickly settled than Massa- 
chusetts is to-day. Such is Texas in area; what is it in capabilities ^ 
We know it for its vast grazing plains, fitted to feed uncounted herds. 

______ We know it for its 

mighty spread or for- 
ests. We know it for 
its magnificent yield of 
cotton. We know it 
for its rich mines, its 
great reservoirs of pe- 
troleum, its multitude 
of rivers, its salubrious 
climate, its rapidly 
growing cities, its active 
seaports, the rice fields 
and sugar plantations 
of its broad coastal 
plain. We know it, 
indeed, for a thousand 
promises and a thou- 
s a n d performances, 
and for a history in 
which the American 
spirit of daring and 
devotion shows at its 
best. It is this history 
of Texas, with the story 

SAMUEL HOUSTON— The Deliverer of Texas of [^^ heroes and its 

martyrs to liberty, with which we are now concerned. While the 
United States has its Independence Hall, Texas has its Alamo, a 
building made sacred to liberty by the blood of the brave. Around 
the story of the Alamo its whole history turns. 

Texas began its career as a part of Spanish America. After 
1 82 1, when Mexico broke the bonds of Spain, Texas became a 
province of the new nation. It was a sparsely peopled domain. 




256 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 

thousands of its square miles having never been troubled by a white 
man's foot. But, invited by Mexico, multitudes of Americans 
poured from the neighboring states across its borders, and within 
ten years there were twenty thousand enterprising Southerners on 
Texan soil. One may well imagine what followed. These were 
true sons of the South, daring, high-spirited, liberty-loving Americans 
to whom tyranny was worse than death. But they had made them- 
selves citizens of Mexico, were exposed to petty acts of oppression 
from governors who hated them, and were subject to the rule of a 
government whose principles they detested. We know what a 
Spanish American government in those days was, and what in some 
sections it still is, — a despotism Umited by insurrection. This Hmit 
the incensed American settlers soon stepped over. Chafing under 
the annoyances of Mexican rule, they hved in a condition of chronic 
revolt. In 1832 they broke into open insurrection, took to arms, 
and drove the Mexican troops out of the country. 

Thus, for a time, was the air cleared. The troops came back, 
but they kept shy of the hot-blooded Americans, and for two years 
Texas was fairly quiet. But during these years new settlers poured 
over the border in a steady stream, and daily the desire for inde- 
pendence grew stronger. The Americans, who formed the bulk of 
the population, detested and despised the Mexicans and chafed 
under their rule. At length the spark was thrown into the open 
barrel of gunpowder. The Mexican rulers, in dread of their new 
subjects, ordered that the people of Texas should be disarmed. In 
an instant the country was in a blaze of rebelHon. The Mexican 
troops who came to take the arms of the Texans found them in 
strong hands, ready and able to use them, and after a brief period of 
hostilities here and there, the troops were again driven out of the 
country. The die was cast. Mexican rule would no longer be 
endured. The insurrectionists organized a provisional government. 
Samuel Houston was put at the head of affairs, and independence 
was declared. On the other hand Mexico was astir. Santa Anna, 
its dictator and tyrant, an able but false and cruel general, crossed 
the Rio Grande at the head of an army of 7500 men and marched 
into the country, resolved to put down the insurrection in blood, if 
necessary. Such was the situation of affairs at the close of 1835. 

Now let us go back to the man whose name we have mentioned 
Samuel Houston, the Washington of Texas. An able and brilliant 



Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 257 

leader he was, and his story is well worth repeating, for the story 
of Texas is inseparably associated with his name, as leader, defender, 
president, and governor. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth century the rich but wild 
regions of Kentucky and Tennessee were the paradise of hunters 
and pioneers; and there grew up a race of statesmen of a new and 
distinct type; men like Jackson, Clay, and Benton; strong, brave, 
and hardy; original and ready of resource, but with little education, 
and having, as the French say, "the defects of their qualities." 
Houston was of this class. He was born in Rockbridge County, 
Virginia, in 1793. When he was only thirteen, his father died; 
and with his mother and eight other children he crossed the moun- 
tains into Tennessee, where they settled on the banks of the Tennessee 
River at what was then the Hmit of civilization. Beyond the river 
lay the country of the Cherokees, and during a large part of Hous- 
ton's boyhood he lived among the Indians, learning their ways and 
acquiring their language. He was looked up to by the Indians 
as a leader. A story is told that in 1846, when he was in Congress, 
a party of forty wild Indians were brought to Washington from 
Texas by General Moorhead; and when they met Houston, they 
one and all ran to him, greeted him with delight, hugged him like 
bears in their brawny arms, and called him "Father." 

Houston fought under Jackson in the War of 18 12, and was 
desperately wounded in battle with the Creek Indians. When the 
famous battle of New Orleans put an end to the war, he studied law, 
and soon began to practice. He rose rapidly in his profession, was 
chosen district attorney, was elected to Congress in 1823 and 1825, 
and in 1827, when thirty-four years old, was made Governor of 
Tennessee. His progress had been wonderfully rapid; he was one 
of the most popular men of his state; he might aspire to the highest 
positions, with every prospect of success. But in 1829 ^" event 
occurred which completely changed the course of his life. 

This was a marriage which, for some reason unknown, proved 
unfortunate. In three months a separation took place, and a feeling 
of intense excitement arose which fermented the state, and divided 
the people into factions. The friends of the lady grew bitterly 
hostile to Houston, charging him with faults and crimes. His 
friends warmly defended him. But not a word came from him, 
and he forbade his friends to speak in his vindication. In the end, 

17 



258 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 

disgusted at the situation, he threw up his office of governor, turned 
his back upon civihzation, and went back for peace to his old friends 
the Indians. For three years he lived among them, hke one of 
themselves, but watching keenly what was going on across the 
Mexican border. At length came the outbreak of 1832, and at 
once Houston left the wigwams of the Cherokees and set out for 
Texas, bent on casting in his lot with the new people. He was born 
to be a leader of men and his abilities were soon perceived. By the 
time the revolt of 1835 broke out he had won his place and at once 
took his natural post as the leader of the Texan army of insurrec- 
tion. 

The early days of the war for hberty were signalized by the 
terrible affair of the Alamo, an event which created such fierce 
exasperation among the Texans that their subjection was thence- 
forth impossible. After that display of Mexican barbarity their 
war-cry became Hberty or death. Among the men concerned in 
these events there are two of whom we must particularly speak, 
from the notoriety they had won in the early history of the South- 
east. One of these, James Bowie, grew famous among the wild 
frontiersmen as a duelist, gaining an unenviable notoriety by his 
death-dealing skill in handhng the bowie-knife, — a long sharp- 
pointed weapon invented by himself, and with which he won victory 
in many hand to hand fights with the lawless characters of the 
border settlements. In all that horde of rough and fearless men 
there was none more bold, daring and feared than the far-famed 
duelist. 

The other was a man of different character and less lurid fame, 
David, or to give him his famihar title, "Davy" Crockett, one of 
the most picturesque personages in American history. Born in 
Tennessee in 1786, he lived a wild youthful fife and became a 
hunter whose skill with the rifle was phenomenal. In 18 13 he took 
part in the Creek War, with Jackson, Houston and other noted 
border characters. Here he became widely known as an Indian 
fighter, did very able service as a scout, and served with great 
credit through the war. When he came back to his Tennessee 
home he was looked upon as a sort of second Daniel Boone. 

Tennessee at that time was in anything but a civiHzed condition. 
It was full of lawless characters, government was limited by the 
knife and the pistol, and disorder ruled supreme. Crockett placed 



Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 



259 



himself among those who sought to redeem Tennessee from this 
discreditable condition. His home was among a reckless set, and 
the organization of a temporary government was imperative. Upon 
its formation Crockett was made magistrate. Afterward he 
became a member of the Legislature, although one of his biographers 
states that at this time he could hardly read a newspaper. Later in 
life he proved that he 
had some "book lam- 
ing," for the best ac- 
count of his life and 
adventures is found in 
the autobiography 
which he wrote. His 
early success as a pol- 
itician was due princi- 
pally to his qualities of 
humor, good story-tell- 
ing, hard sense, and 
true marksmanship 
with a rifle, a combi- 
nation that is sure to 
win favor among back- 
woodsmen. 

Crockett served in 
Congress two terms, 
and won national rep- 
utation and popularity 
as one of the "half 
horse, half alhgator" 
class. His career in 
Washington was 
brought to an end by 
a quarrel with General 
Jackson, of whose party he had at first been an adherent. 
He then cast his lot with those who were battling for Texan 
independence, taking his wife and his skill as a marksman 
to that new country, in whose cause his career was destined to end 
in a blaze of glory, for he was one of the immortal band who died 
at the Alamo, 




ZACHARY TAYLOR 

Old " Rough and Ready," the Hero of Buena Vista 

(1784-1850. One partial term, 1849-1850.) 



26o Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 

With these prehminaries we must go on to the story of this 
famous fortress. On the San Antonio River, at the town of Bexar, 
was posted a small garrison of the colonists, somewhere between 
140 and 190 in number. Two among them were the noted char- 
acters we have described; Crockett the Indian fighter and Bowie 
the duelist. Both of these were destined to redeem as members of 
that band of heroes whatever there may have been of the question- 
able in their former Hves. They were only two among a group of 
men equally brave, at whose head was Colonel W. Barrett Travis, 
one of the most heroic of them all. Upon this town, one of the 
nearest settlements to the Rio Grande frontier, marched Santa 
Anna with his thousands. Travis, knowing that he could not face 
the Mexican multitudes in the open, took refuge within the strong 
walls of the Alamo, a building about half a mile north of the town. 

The Alamo was an ancient Franciscan mission-house of the 
eighteenth century. It covered an area of about three acres, which 
were surrounded by walls three feet thick and eight feet high. 
Within the walls were a stone church and several other buildings. 
Its remains still stand, near the thriving city of San Antonio, the 
most cherished rehc of the Texan State. Within its walls the little 
but devoted band of patriots gathered, hopeless but resolute. All 
hope of succor was cut off, although Houston was doing his best to 
rally an army of defense. The Alamo and its defenders were left 
alone, to the mercy of the "Napoleon of the West," as Santa Anna 
magniloquently called himself. 

But Lieutenant-Colonel Travis and the little garrison had made 
up their minds. There was but one idea of duty in the souls of these 
men. They were resolved to defend the Alamo to the bitter end. 
Like Leonidas and his Spartans at Thermopylae, they had but one 
ultimatum, victory or death. 

For two weeks the Alamo withstood all Santa Anna's assaults. 
A shower of shells and balls fell incessantly within its walls. Several 
efforts were made to take it by storm, but in every case the Mexicans 
were driven back with heavy loss. The Texans fought hke demons, 
kiUing hundreds of their assailants, but their own Httle band day 
by day grew less. From the start they were too few to man the 
extended walls. At length came the day when they had grown too 
weak to repel their hundreds of assailants. The Mexicans swarmed 
over the walls, despite all resistance. The defenders fought like 



Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 



261 



Spartan heroes, hopelessly but gallantly, with no thought but to die 
with arms in hand and with face to the foe. Crockett fell at length 
amid the heap of those he had slain. Bowie lay sick in bed that 
fatal day and was killed in cold blood. The others fell, one by one, 
until not a man of the defenders was left — the only survivors of the 
desperate fight being two women, their two children, and a negro 









THE ALAMO BUILDING 

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 

The site where Crockett, Travis, Bowie and the remainder of the brave little band 
were massacred through the barbarity of Santa Anna. 

boy. Not even the bones of Travis and his men were preserved. 
The mutilated bodies were burned a few hours after they fell; and 
nothing was left but the ashes which the Texans a year after the 
massacre gathered up and reverently buried. Such was the out- 
come of that famous fight of the 6th of March, 1836. Little is left 



262 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 

to-day of the original Alamo. It has not been kept, as it should 
have been, as an edifice sacred to liberty. But the inscription on 
the Alamo monument, in the porch of the Texan capitol at Austin, 
shows the reverence with which it is regarded. It reads "Ther- 
mopylae had her messenger of death; the Alamo had none." 

The slaughter of the defenders of the Alamo was quickly 
followed by another disaster to the Texan patriots. A few days later 
a company of over four hundred Texans, under Colonel Fannin, 
besieged at Goliad, were induced to surrender, under Santa Anna's 
solemn promises of protection. After the surrender they were 
divided into several companies, marched in different directions a 
short distance out of the town, and shot down like dogs by the 
Mexican soldiers. Not a man escaped. 

While these brutal massacres were taking place, Houston was 
at Gonzales, with a force of less than four hundred men. Meetings 
had been held in the different settlements to raise an army to resist 
the Mexican invasion, and a convention of the people issued a procla- 
mation declaring Texas a free and independent republic. It was 
two weeks before General Houston received intelligence of the 
atrocious events at Bexar and Gohad, and of Santa Anna's advance. 
The country v/as in a state of panic. Settlers were everywhere 
abandoning their homes, and fleeing in terror at the approach of 
the Mexican soldiers. Houston's force of a few hundred men was 
the only defense of Texas; and even this was diminished by frequent 
desertion from the ranks. The cause of Texan freedom seemed 
utterly hopeless. 

In order to gain time, while watching his opportunity for attack, 
Houston slowly retreated before the Mexican army. After waiting 
two weeks for reinforcements, he moved toward Buffalo Bayou, a 
deep and narrow stream connecting with the San Jacinto River, 
about twenty miles southeast of the present city of Houston. Here 
he expected to meet the Mexican army. The lines being formed. 
General Houston made one of his most impassioned and eloquent 
appeals to his troops, firing every breast by giving as a watchword, 
"Remember the Alamo." 

Soon the Mexican bugles rang out over the prairie, announcing 
the advance guard of the enemy, almost eighteen hundred strong. 
The rank and file of the patriots was less than seven hundred and 
fifty men. Their disadvantages but served to increase the enthu- 




OUR FOREST WEALTH. 
The Southern States have seven-tenths of the whole forested area 
of the United States: and the gross income from the forest products of 
that reoion last vear was $300,000,000. The lumbermen and dealers m 
timber lands have made and are making big fortunes. But the greatest 
timber tracts are now owned by large companies. 



Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 263 

siasm of the soldiers; and when their general said, "Men, there is 
the enemy; do you wish to fight?" the universal shout was, "We 
do!" "Well, then," he said, "remember it is for liberty or death; 
remember the Alamo!" 

At the moment of attack a lieutenant came galloping up, his 
horse covered with foam, and shouted along the lines, " I've cut 
down Vince's bridge." Each army had used this bridge in coming 
to the battle-field, and General Houston had ordered its destruction, 
thus cutting off from the vanquished their avenue of escape. 

Santa Anna's forces were in perfect order, awaiting the attack. 
They reserved their fire until the patriots were within sixty paces of 
their works. Then they poured forth a volley, most of which went 
over the heads of the attackers, though a ball struck General 
Houston's ankle, inflicting a very painful wound. Though suffering 
and bleeding, Houston kept his saddle during the entire action. 
The patriots withheld their fire until it was given to the enemy, 
with fatal effect, almost in their very bosoms, and then, having no 
time to reload, they made an impetuous rush upon the foe, who 
were altogether unprepared for the furious charge. The patriots, 
not having bayonets, clubbed their rifles, and their onset was so 
irresistible as to break the ranks of the foe. About half-past four 
the Mexican rout began, and closed only with the night. Only 
seven of the patriots were killed and twenty-three wounded, while 
the Mexicans had six hundred and thirty-two killed and wounded 
and seven hundred and thirty, among whom was Santa Anna, 
made prisoners. 

The victory of San Jacinto struck the fetters forever from the 
hands of Texas, and drove back the standard of Mexico beyond the 
Rio Grande, never to return except in predatory and transient 
incursions. General Houston became at once the leading man in 
Texas, almost universal applause following him. As soon as quiet 
and order were restored, he was made the first President of the new 
republic, under the Constitution adopted November, 1835. Santa 
Anna was set free, despite the demand that the massacres at Bexar 
and Goliad should be revenged on his head. But he was first forced 
to acknowledge the independence of Texas. 

As has already been said, the citizens of the new republic had 
no wish to maintain a government of their own. The United States 
was their mother-land, and to it their hearts turned with warm long- 



264 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 

ing. As early as 1837 they asked to be admitted to the Union, but 
for years they were kept out both on account of the protests of 
Mexico and the fact that the new citizens were slave-holders. This 
gave rise to a controversy, the anti-slavery element in the North 
opposing annexation, the South advocating it. In the Presidential 
election of 1844 the annexation of Texas became one of the promi- 
nent questions, and it was this that made James K. Polk President 
over Henry Clay. The result of this election demonstrated clearly 
that the majority of the people wished for annexation, and before 
Polk took his seat, in the last hours of Tyler's administration, both 
Houses of Congress passed the bill for admitting Texas as a state 
and the President signed it. Texas accepted on July 4, 1845, and 
on that day it became a member of the Union, though the formal 
act of admission was not consummated until December of that year. 

Houston was one of the first Senators of the new state, taking 
his seat in January, 1846. So popular was he in the South that he 
was a prominent Democratic candidate for President in 1852. In 
1859 he was elected Governor of Texas, and on the 26th of July, 
1863, he died. "During the forenoon," writes his daughter, "we 
heard his voice in a tone of entreaty, and listening to the feeble 
sound, we caught the words, 'Texas! Texas!' Soon afterward, my 
mother was sitting by the bedside with his hand in hers, and his lips 
moved once again; 'Margaret!' he said; and the voice we loved 
was silent forever. " Thus passed away the soul of the hero to 
whom Texas owed its liberty and the United States the largest and 
one of the finest of its galaxy of states. 

But the war of Texas for independence was but the prelude to a 
greater event, the war between the United States and Mexico, whose 
result was to add an immense region of new territory to the 
former country. While Santa Anna had acknowledged the indepen- 
dence of Texas, his voice for the time being had lost its authority 
in Mexico. His action was ignored and Mexico continued to claim 
Texas, though no effort was made to reconquer it. But the act of 
annexation to the United States brought up anew the Mexican claim 
and a warlike fever swept through the Spanish republic. Texas 
was theirs, cried the hidalgos. They had been biding their time 
simply to take back their own. The action of the United States 
seemed equivalent to an invasion of their sacred soil. The 
Americans must be made to pay dearly for their territory, 



Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 



265 



Between a people thus burning for war and a people fully 
ready to defend its deliberate acts war was very likely to arise. A 
boundary question brought it on. Texas claimed the Rio Grande 
River as its western boundary. Mexico insisted that the Nueces 
River was the true boundary. Between these rivers lay a wide 
strip of land which both countries claimed and into which both 
sent troops. What but war could follow a state of affairs like this ? 
In this " No man's 
land" were the Mexi- 
cans, breathing ven- 
geance. Within touch- 
ing distance were the 
Americans, bent on 
retaining the state 
which had given itseli 
to them. A touch, an 
explosion, and the dogs 
of war would be loose. 
On April 24, 1846, the 
touch came, blood was 
shed,andthe President, 
on hearing of it, sent a 
message to Congress, 
"Mexico has passed 
the boundaries of the 
United States and shed 
American blood upon 
American soil. . 
War exists, notwith- 
standing all our efforts 
to avoid it." 

This message was, 
in its way, amusing; 
war existing simply because no effort had been made to avoid it. 
Texas was ours and we had no thought of giving it up. But with 
all this we are not here concerned, nor are we with the war itself ex- 
cept in so far as its result had to do with the South. All we need 
say is that, while the war was favored in large measure throughout 
the country, it was especially favored in the South, which looked 




GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT 
A Hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. 



2 66 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 

upon Texas, the cause of the conflict, as an integrant part of itself. 
And it is an interesting fact that all the leaders of the war, with the 
exception of General Kearny, the conqueror of New Mexico, were 
of Southern birth. General Taylor, the chief hero of the war, whose 
defeat of Santa Anna at Buena Vista was its most dramatic event, 
was a native of Orange County, Virginia. General Scott, who in- 
vaded the heart of the Mexican republic and ended the war by 
taking its capitol, was also a Virginian, born near Petersburg. 
And Fremont, to whose daring we owe CaHfornia, was a Georgian 
born, a native of Savannah. As for the army, it was made up 
oi Northern and Southern troops, and was led by officers from both 
sections, and it is a matter of deep interest that Lee and Grant, the 
subsequent great adversaries in the Civil War, were fellow-soldiers 
in Mexico and took here their first practical lessons in the art of 
war. Another Southern hero of the war was Colonel Jefferson Davis, 
one of Taylor's right-hand men at Monterey and Buena Vista, and 
of whose gallant and able conduct Taylor spoke in tones of un- 
stinted praise. 

That is all we need say about this war. The South has been 
accused of fomenting it for purposes of its own, especially to gain 
new area for the extension of slavery, but the fact is that it was a 
national, not a sectional affair, and its opposers were a faction, not 
a party. The signal defeat of Henry Clay, America's most popular 
orator and statesman, by an almost unknown candidate, shows this. 
Polk was an earnest advocate of annexation. Clay hesitated and 
failed to speak out plainly and the great public favorite was defeated. 
And the war followed the act of annexation as an inevitable con- 
sequence. It could not well have been avoided, while Mexico held 
the attitude it did, without a square back-down on the part of the 
United States. And the United States does not back down. It has 
not learned the art. 

There were some interesting results of the war. Santa Anna, 
who had been so signally defeated in Texas, again headed the 
Mexican armies and again went down before American valor. Before 
Taylor at Buena Vista and Scott at Cerro Gordo he twice met defeat, 
and when Scott and his army marched into the city of Mexico, Santa 
Anna found it convenient to go into exile. Of the two leaders 
named, Taylor was rewarded by being made President of the United 
States. Four years later Scott tried fox the same high honor. But 



Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 



267 



he had trusted his fate to the derelict Whig party and a great wave 
of Democratic success swept over the land, burying him and his 
party from sight under its immense majority. While Scott was the 
chief leader, Taylor was the great popular hero of the war. 

The war with Mexico had political results of vast importance. 
All claim upon Texas was abandoned by Mexico, and New Mexico 
and California, conquered and held by American armies, were 
surrendered as spoil to the victors. As a salve to Mexican pride 
the United States consented to give this surrender the form of a 
purchase and sale, by paying Mexico the sum of ^15.000.000. 
There is in this a singular coincidence wjth the Louisiana purchase 
which does not seem to have been put on record. In both cases 




SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, FROM FORT HOUSTON 

1^15.000.000 was the sum paid, and the area of the two tracts 
obtained was almost precisely the same. The area of French 
Louisiana was approximately 920,000 square miles. That of the 
Mexican accession, including Texas, was 921,916 square miles. 
There is another coincidence. Each tract when obtained was 
looked upon as of small value; each developed into extraordinary 
wealth. 

Considerably more than half of the area of Mexico was thus 
within two years added to the United States, for there remained to 
Mexico only 750,000 square miles. Yet practically her loss was 
small. She retained her settled and developed section. She 



268 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 

abandoned to the United States a vast unpeopled territory, the 
haunt of wandering tribes of savages, but almost barren of white 
men. It was at that time almost worthless to Mexico, and it is a 
question if she was not well paid for its value, as it then appeared. 
Nearly all the development it possessed at that time had been given 
to it by American ipimigrants. And certainly, if Mexico was not fully 
repaid at the time, she was some thirty years afterward, when the 
United States rescued the remainder of the republic from the strong 
grasp of France, and gave it back to its people to develop into the 
prosperous nation of to-day. One thing further needs to be said 
before this chapter in American history is closed. The question of 
the admission of slavery into the newly gained territory was the 
great political question of the few succeeding years. It was finally 
dealt with in Clay's famous "Compromise of 1850," which left its 
settlement to the vote of the people themselves. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE NEGRO AS AN ELEMENT IN THE 
HISTORY OF THE NATION 

Beginning of the slave trade — Its horrors — Slavery in New^ York and Boston — ^Slavery 
unpopular in early days — England sustains the slave trade — Washington and 
Jefferson on slavery — Slavery in the Constitutional Convention — The Slave 
Trade abolished — The cotton gin — The Missouri Compromise — The work of the 
Abolitionists — Garrison and the "Liberator" — The economic relations of 
Slavery — The treatment of the slave — The Compromise of 1850 

THE history of the negro in America is, in brief, the record of 
slavery agitation, poHtical struggle, civil war, emancipation, 
and gradual growth of the emancipated slave toward true 
citizenship. When, over two hundred and eighty years ago — 
it is in doubt whether the correct date is i6i9or 1620 — a few wretched 
negroes, some say fourteen, some say twenty, were bartered for 
provisions by the crew of a Dutch man-of-war, then lying off the 
Virginia coast, it would have seemed incredible that in 1900 the 
negro population of the Southern States alone should reach a total 
of eight milHon souls. The peculiarity of this form of slavery, 
begun, almost by chance as it seemed, in that act of barter in the 
feeble little colony of Virginia, was that it was based on the claim 
of race inferiority. African negroes had, indeed, been sold into 
slavery among many nations for perhaps three thousand years; but 
in its earUer periods slavery was rather the outcome of war than the 
deliberate object of trade, and white captives no less than black 
were ruthlessly thrown into servitude. As regards the latter, it has 
been estimated that in historical times the vast number of forty 
million Africans have been enslaved. 

The discovery and colonization of America gave an immense 
stimulus to the African slave trade. The Spaniards found the 
Indian intractable in slavery, and for the arduous labors of coloniza- 

269 



270 



Negro Element in the Nation 



tion soon began to make use of negro slaves, importing them in great 
numbers, and declaring that one negro was worth, as a human 
beast of burden, four Indians. Soon English adventurers took 
up the traffic. It is to Sir John Hawkins, the ardent discoverer, 
that the English-speaking peoples owe their participation in the 
slave trade. He has put it on record as the result of one of his 
famous voyages, that he found "that negroes were very good mer- 
chandise in Hispaniola, and might easily be had on the coast of 
Guinea." For his early adventures of this kind he was roundly 
taken to task by Queen Elizabeth. But tradition says that he 
boldly faced her with argument, and ended by convincing the queen 

that the slave trade was 
not merely a lucrative 
but a philanthropic un- 
dertaking. Which of 
these considerations 
most influenced the 
queen, we are not told. 
Certain it is that she 
acquiesced in future 
slave trading, while two 
of her successors, Charles 
II. and James II., char- 
tered four slave-trading 
companies and received 
a share in their profits. 
A PROGRESSIVE NEGRO ^^'^ insdtution of 

This ex-slave has saved and bought himself an ox and cart Slavery, mtroducea aS 
and does a good business supplying wood to the Virginians, -^g have seen into 

Virginia, grew at first very slowly. Twenty-five years after the 
first slaves were landed the negro population of the colony was only 
three hundred. But the conditions of agriculture and of climate 
were such that, once slaveiy obtained a fair start, it spread with 
continually increasing rapidity. In some of the Northern colonies 
slavery seemed to take root as readily and to flourish as rapidly as 
in the South. It was only after a considerable time that social and 
industrial conditions arose which led the former to its gradual 
abandonment. 

In New York a mild type of negro slavery was introduced by the 




Negro Element in the Nation 271 

Dutch. The relation of master and slave seems in the period of the 
Dutch rule to have been free from great severity or cruelty, but after 
the seizure of the government by the English the institution was 
officially recognized and even encouraged. The slave trade grew 
in magnitude, and we find a series ot severe laws forbidding the 
meeting of negroes together, laying down penalties for concealing 
slaves, and the hke. In the early years of the eighteenth century 
fears of insurrection became prevalent, and these fears culminated 
in 1 741 in the episode of the so-called Negro Plot. Very briefly 
stated, this plot grew out of a succession of fires supposed to have 
been the work of negro incendiaries. The most astonishing con- 
tradictions and self-inculpations are to be found in the involved mass 
of testimony taken at the different trials. It is certain that the per- 
jury and incoherent accusations of these trials can be equaled only 
by those of the alleged witches at Salem, or of the famous Popish 
plot of Titus Oates. The result may be summed up in the state- 
ment that in three months one hundred and fifty negroes were 
imprisoned, of whom fourteen were burned at the stake, eighteen 
hanged, and seventy-one transported. Here was an atrocity which, 
fortunately for the credit of our people for humanity, has had no 
counterpart in the South, where no such blind and cruel panic has 
ever appeared. Another result was the passing of even more stringent 
legislation, curtailing the rights, and defining the legal status, of the 
slave. When the Revolution broke out there were not fewer than 
fifteen thousand slaves in New York, a number greatly in excess of 
that held by any other Northern colony. 

Massachusetts, the home in later days of so many of the aboli- 
tion agitators, was from the very first, until after the war with Great 
Britain was well under way, a stronghold of slavery. The records 
of 1633 tell of the fright of Indians who saw a "Blackmoor" in a 
tree-top whom they took for the devil in person, but who turned out 
to be an escaped slave. A few years later the authorities of the 
colony officially recognized the institution. It is true that in 1645 
the general court of Massachusetts ordered certain kidnapped 
negroes to be returned to their native country, but this was not be- 
cause they were slaves but because their holders had stolen them 
away from their masters. Despite specious arguments to the con- 
trary, it is certain that, to quote Chief-Justice Parsons, "Slavery 
was introduced into Massachusetts soon after its first settlement, and 



272 Negro Element in the Nation 

was tolerated until the ratification of the present constitution in 
1780." The curious may find in ancient Boston newspapers no 
lack of such advertisements as that, in 1728, of the sale of "Two very 
likely negro girls," and of "A likely negro woman of about nineteen 
years and a child about seven months of age, to be sold together or 
apart." A Tory writer before the outbreak of the Revolution, 
sneers at the Bostonians for their talk about freedom when they 
possessed two thousand negro slaves. Even Peter Faneuil, who 
built the famous "Cradle of Liberty," was himself, at that very 
time, actively engaged in the slave trade. 

There is some truth in the once common taunt of the pro- 
slavery orators that the North imported slaves, the South only 
bought them. It is stated that Massachusetts was the first colony 
to indorse the slave trade by legal enactment and that there was 
equipped the first slave ship that sailed from an American port. 
Certainly there was no more active center of the slave trade than 
Bristol Bay, whence cargoes of rum and iron goods were sent to the 
African coast, and exchanged for human cargoes. These slaves 
were, however, usually taken, not to Massachusetts, but to the West 
Indies or to Virginia. One curious outcome of slavery in Massa- 
chusetts was that from the gross superstition of a negro slave, 
Tituba, first sprang the hideous delusions of the Salem witchcraft 
trials. 

As with New York and Massachusetts, so with the other col- 
onies. Either slavery was introduced by greedy speculators from 
abroad or it spread easily from adjoining colonies. Oglethorpe 
tried to keep it out of Georgia, but the needs of the planters rendered 
slave labor indispensable. By the year 1740 about one hundred 
and forty thousand negroes had been brought to this country. In 
1776 the slave population of the thirteen colonies was almost exactly 
half a million, nine-tenths of whom were to be found in the Southern 
States. In the North they were kept chiefly in the cities as house- 
servants; but in the South they were needed as field-hands, and 
proved very useful in the cultivation of tobacco, indigo and rice. 
Malarial fever rendered the rice-fields dangerous to whites, while 
it rarely attacked the blacks. 

It should be said here that the slave trade was regarded in 
colonial times with great disfavor by the colonies, and movements 
in favor of emancipation began soon after 1700. Many of the 



Negro Element in the Nation 273 

people of Virginia, and also of Carolina, where slave labor was 
more essential, disapproved of the institution, and showed a prefer- 
ence for white labor. The rapid increase of negro slaves in this 
country was due to England, not to America. It was to the greed of 
the English kings that the colonies owed in great part their unwel- 
come institution. Laws to restrict slave importation were frequently 
passed in the colonies, the Assembly of Virginia protesting against 
it no less than thirty-two times. England found the trade profit- 
able, and the colonists were forced to accept the negroes whom the 
monarchs and merchants persisted in sending, despite all protests. 
Bancroft clearly indicates the true state of affairs when he says 
"The sovereigns of England and Spain were the greatest slave- 
merchants in the world." 

Laws passed by Virginia in 1770 forbidding the bringing of 
slaves into that colony were practically vetoed by George III, who 
on December loth issued, under his own signature, a strict instruc- 
tion to the governor, commanding him "under pain of the highest 
displeasure to assent to no law by which the importation of slaves 
should be in any respect prohibited or obstructed." This vigorous 
order was earnestly debated in the House of Burgesses in 1772, and 
a memorial to the king was prepared, declaring the importation of 
slaves from the coast of Africa to be "A trade of great inhumanity 
and dangerous to the very existence of his Majesty's American do- 
minions." It prayed that the interests of the few in Great Britain 
who might "reap emolument from this sort of traffic" should not 
be placed in competition with the interests of whole colonies. But 
the petition proved of no avail, and the slave trade was sustained by 
England's king until the Revolution ended his power over the Amer- 
ican colonists. All this plainly shows that the introduction of 
slavery in America was the misfortune, not the fault, of the Americans 
themselves. 

In 1778 Virginia passed an act forbidding, under heavy penalty, 
the importation of slaves by land or water. With the debates 
preceding the adoption of the present Constitution of the United 
States the political problem of slavery as a national question began. 
Though under the colonial system the responsibility for the traffic 
was due to the mother country, from the day when the Declaration 
of Independence asserted "That all men are created equal, that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that 



2 74 Negro Element in the Nation 

among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," the 
peoples of the new, self-governing states took upon themselves the 
responsibility. There is ample evidence that the fixing of the popu- 
lar mind on liberty as an ideal bore results immediately in arousing 
anti-slavery sentiment. Such sentiment existed in the South as 
v^ell as in the North. Even North Carolina in 1876 declared the 
slave trade of "evil consequences and highly impolitico" All the 
Northern states abolished slavery, beginning with Vermont in 1777 
and ending with New Jersey in 1804. It should be added, however, 
that many of the northern slaves were not freed, but sold to the 
South. As we have already intimated, also, the agricultural and 
commercial conditions in the North were such as to make slave 
labor less and less profitable, while in the South the agricultural 
conditions and the character of the climate were gradually making 
it seemingly indispensable. The change in sentiment in the North 
was therefore economic, not philanthropic. Most of the Northern 
States provided for gradual abolition, and in some of them slaves 
were Kving until nearly the date of the Civil War. In Pennsylvania 
for instance, there were sixty-four slaves in 1840, and in New Jersey 
there were two hundred and thirty-six in 1850. 

When the Constitutional debates began the trend of opinion 
seemed strongly against slavery. Many delegates thought that the 
evil would die out of itself. One thought the aboHtion of slavery 
already rapidly going on and soon to be completed. Another 
asserted that "slavery in time will not be a speck in our country." 
Mr. Jefferson, on the other hand, in view of the retention of slavery, 
declared roundly that he trembled for his country when he remem- 
bered that God was just. In the first session of the Continental 
Congress after the close of the Revolutionaiy War (March i, 1784), 
Jefferson proposed an ordinance for the government of the territory 
including the projected states of Tennessee, Alabama and Missis- 
sippi, one article of which required that "After the year 1800 there 
should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the 
said States, otherwise than in punishment of crime." This measure 
was lost, though a similar one was soon after adopted in the ordi- 
nance establishing the Northwestern Territory. 

Jefferson was not alone in his feehng about slavery, various 
other leaders in the South holding similar opinions. Washington, 
who provided in his will for the emancipation of his slaves, said to 



Negro Element in the Nation 275 

Jefferson, that it was "among his first wishes to see some plan by 
which slavery in his country might be abolished by law. " Madison, 
Patrick Henry, and others of prominence held similar views, and, 
so far at least as Virginia was concerned, slavery was the reverse 
of a popular institution among the pubhc men of the South. John 
Randolph expressed the situation in his vigorous way by saying that 
we were holding a wolf by the ears, equally dangerous to hold on or 
to let go. 

When the time arrived for the adoption of the new Constitution 
of the United States the question of slavery came up as one of the 
most important problems to be disposed of by the Convention. At 
that time there were over six hundred thousand slaves in the states. 
The first census taken in 1790, three years later,, gave the number as 
657,000 in the South and 40,300 in the North. These were found 
in every state except Massachusetts, more than twenty thousand 
of them being in New York, in which state they were employed in 
farm as well as house labor. The number in Pennsylvania had been 
kept down by the large employment of indentured servants — prac- 
tically white slaves — in colonial times. 

As respects the feeling in the eighteenth century concerning 
slavery, we may cite the action of the Second Continental Congress, 
which on April 6, 1776, passed a resolution "that no slaves should 
be imported into any of the thirteen united colonies. " This decree, 
however, was not carried out, and the slave trade went on. In 1790 
a petition was presented to Congress, headed by the name of Ben- 
jamin Franklin, asking for legislation looking to the ultimate extinc- 
tion of slavery. It was fully debated, but Congress finally decided 
that the question belonged to the states, and was beyond the powers 
delegated to the Federal Government. 

The facts above given show that slavery was not a popular 
institution in the United States, taken as a whole, at the date of 
origin of its new government. Yet with six hundred thousand 
slaves in the country at the time of the debate on the Constitution, 
there could not but be a strong financial and economic interest in 
favor of the institution. This was especially the case in the states 
of South Carolina and Georgia, whose rice fields could not have 
been cultivated without negro labor. The negroes in these fields 
were property. They represented a large money value to the 
planters. The latter could not justly be asked to beggar themselves 



276 Negro Element in the Nation 

by the immediate freeing of the slaves, or even to accept a large 
eventual loss from gradual emancipation without national aid. 
The new nation was not able to pay its pressing debts, and was in no 
position to offer to purchase the treedom of the slaves. There could 
be but one result ot this state of affairs, the delegates representing 
South Carolina and Georgia absolutely refused to come into the 
new Union unless slavery were recognized. 

The feeling entertained by the planters of these states was a 
very natural one. It would have been felt by the citizens of any 
state under similar conditions. Their wealth was at risk, and they 
did not propose to beggar themselves at the demand of those who 
had no immediate personal interest to temper their philanthropy. 
Their delegates naturally insisted upon just treatment at the hands of 
the Convention and the debate ended in a series of compromises. 
These, as finally agreed upon, avoided the use of the words slave 
and slavery, but clearly recognized the institution and even gave 
the slave states the advantage of sending representatives to Congress 
on a basis of population determined by adding to the whole number 
of free persons, "three-fifths of all other persons." The other 
persons thus referred to were, it is needless to state, negro slaves. 
Another important element in the settlement of this question was 
that provided for in Article IV, Section 2, of the Constitution, which 
makes the return of fugitive slaves a constitutional requirement. 

The entire dealing with the question of slavery, at the framing 
of the Constitution, was a series of compromises. This is seen again 
in the postponement of the abolition of the slave trade, the date for 
which was fixed for the year 1808. As that time approached. Presi- 
dent Jefferson urged Congress to withdraw the country from all 
"further participation in those violations of human rights which 
have so long been continued on the unoffending inhabitants of 
Africa." The act provided for was at once adopted, and by it 
heavy fines were imposed on all persons fitting out vessels for the 
slave trade and also upon all actually engaged in the trade, while 
vessels so employed became absolutely forfeited. Twelve years 
later another act was passed declaring the importation of slaves to 
be actual piracy. This latter law, however, was of little practical 
value, as it was not until 1861 that a conviction was obtained under 
it. Then, at last, when the whole slave question was about to be 
settled forever, a ship-master was convicted and hanged for piracy 



Negro Element in the Nation 



277 



in New York for the crime of being engaged in the slave trade. In 
despite of all laws, however, the trade in slaves was continued 
secretly, and the profits were so enormous that the risks did not 
prevent continual attempts to smuggle slaves into the territory of 
the United States. 

It must appear evident from what is above said, that up to the 
date of the beginning of the government of the United States under 




UNCLE REMUS' EXPRESS 
The Negro Horseless Carriage. 

the Constitution of 1787 slave trade and slavery Itself were opposed 
by the leading men of this country, and were widely unpopular. 
This was markedly the case in Virginia. The retention of slavery 
was due to the peculiar industrial conditions of two of the states, 
and especially to the large financial interests involved in these states. 
This condition of pubhc feeling continued until 1793, when an 
event occurred that made a decided change in the situation. That 
year was marked by the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney. 



278 Negro Element in the Nation 

Prior to that time the cultivation of cotton in this country had been 
conducted on a very small scale, chiefly due to the difficulty of 
removing the seed from the cotton fibre. The new^ and rapid method 
of preparing the cotton by the use of this machine made its cultiva- 
tion highly profitable, and cotton culture spread with extraordinary 
rapidity. To its success negro labor was indispensable, and at that 
time no negro labor except that of slaves was available in this 
country. The number of slaves in consequence rapidly increased, 
and the institution became firmly fixed upon the South, as appa- 
rently an absolutely necessary outcome of its agricultural conditions. 

The first quarter of a centur)^ of our history, after the adoption 
of the Constitution, was marked by comparative quietude in regard 
to the future of slavery. In the North, as we have seen, the institu- 
tion died a natural death, but there was no disposition evinced in 
the Northern States to interfere with it in the South. The first great 
battle took place in 1820 over the so-called Missouri Compromise. 
Now, for the first time, the country was divided, sectionally and in a 
strictly political way, upon issues which involved the future poHcy 
of the United States as to the extension or restriction of slave terri- 
tory. State after state had been admitted into the Union, but there 
had been an alternation of slave and free states, so that the political 
balance was not disturbed. Thus, Vermont was balanced by 
Kentucky, Tennessee by Ohio, Louisiana by Indiana, and Mis- 
sissippi by IlHnois. The last state admitted had been Alabama, of 
course as a slave-holding state. There were then eleven slave and 
eleven free states. Now it was proposed to admit Maine and 
Missouri, and, to still maintain the equality of pohtical power, it 
was contended that the latter should be admitted as a slave state. 

This gave rise to the most bitter pohtical quarrel the country 
had yet known. Despite the fact that the South had an acknowl- 
edged claim to the preservation of a balance of power between the 
two conditions, there was a strong party in the Middle and Eastern 
States that strenuously opposed this claim. The bill for the admis- 
sion of Missouri was fiercely debated throughout two sessions of 
Congress, the hostile feeling growing so strong that for a time it 
seemed as if the stability of the Union would not stand the strain. 
The South was vigorously determined upon having an equitable 
division of power between the two sections, and the long contest 
ended in its opponents giving way. This was due to the great per- 



Negro Element in the Nation 279 

sonal influence of Henry Clay, and to a compromise measure which 
he brought forward. He proposed that slavery should be permitted 
in Missouri, but excluded from every other new area of the Union 
north of the parallel of latitude 36° 30', which formed the southern 
boundary of that state. His plan of settlement, as adopted, was 
the famous "Missouri Compromise." It removed the question 
from the arena of national poHtics for more than thirty years, and 
permitted the country to settle down to some degree of political 
peace. Yet, as events soon showed, it was a truce, not a peace. 

During those thirty years, indeed, an agitation began and 
developed in the North which rendered peace impossible. It was 
that advocating and demanding the aboHtion of slavery. This was 
not a new subject of thought or discussion. Anti-slavery sentiment 
of a mild type had long existed in the South as well as in the North. 
Washington and Jeff^erson, as we have seen, were among its earnest 
advocates. But all the early writing and speaking against slavery 
was general and moderate in tone, and contained no note of aggres- 
sion. The only method of disposing of the institution suggested 
had been by colonization or by gradual emancipation. No one 
advocated in the earlier periods the bandit-Hke idea that the Southern 
planters should be deprived of this property without compensation. 

The first American Colonization Society was organized at 
Washington, in 18 17. It proved a popular movement in Virginia, 
and auxiHary societies were formed in all parts of that state. The 
Colonization Society of Virginia was organized somewhat later, 
and included among its members the leading men of the state, 
Chief-Justice John Marshall being its President, and James Madison, 
James Monroe, John Tyler, and others of note among its Vice-Pres- 
idents. Everything seemed looking forward to the gradual aboli- 
tion of slavery at least in Virginia, when the movement was checked 
by the attitude of the abolition societies of the North. 

It was not until after 1830 that the unjust, illiberal, and revolu- 
tionary demand for emancipation without compensation was heard. 
A party of fanatical agitators then arose, who, if they could have had 
their way, would have made short work of justice or economic free- 
dom in America by a wholesale looting of unprecedented extent. 
This era began in 1831 with William Lloyd Garrison and his violent 
abolition sheet ''The Liberator," which conspicuously bore the 
motto, "No Union with Slaveholders." 



28o Negro Element in the Nation 

Such was the slogan of the Abolitionists, a band of active 
agitators who followed Garrison's lead. They were feeble in num- 
bers, never gaining much strength as a political party, and opposi- 
tion to them was as vigorous in the North as in the South. They 
were threatened, mobbed, all but killed. Garrison was dragged 
through the streets of Boston with a rope around his neck, many 
gentlemen taking part in the demonstration. Yet he had the 
courage of the fanatic, and went so far as to advocate a dissolution of 
the Union, maintaining that to remain united with states that retained 
slavery was "An agreement with hell and a covenant with death." 

The ''Liberator" demanded "the immediate and unconditional 
emancipation of every slave held in the United States. " This wildly 
impossible demand raised a storm. The Southern planters were 
not alone in declaring that the editor must be mad; the great bulk 
of the Northerners seeming to hold the same opinion. Yet Garrison 
was a man of one idea, and he worked away upon that persistently . 
till he won many followers of his own type of mind. Chief among 
these were the fluent and fiery orators, Wendell Phillips and Theo- 
dore Parker. But Garrison did not carry all the abolitionists in 
his train. There was a class of more moderate men among them, 
including such able writers as Greeley, Channing, Emerson and 
Whittier, men really more dangerous in their hostiHty to the South, 
because less extreme. These and others kept up an incessant attack, 
from varied points of view, upon the institution of slavery, each 
section of the party. adding steadily to its strength by dint of per- 
sistently keeping its views before the people. 

As may well be supposed, this increasing assault, violent in many 
instances, insidious in others, roused a strong sentiment of indigna- 
tion among the planters of the South. They felt that they were 
being unjustly and irrationally dealt with, and their sense of injury 
grew as the party of their enemies extended in the North. The 
institution of slavery was not of their making. It had been thrust 
upon their fathers in the past, sorely against their will. Those then 
living had been born to it. If it had never existed, this country 
might have found some satisfactory means of doing without it; but 
exist it did, wrought deeply into the economic life of the South, and 
to attempt to rid themselves of it suddenly and violently would leave 
the South in the condition of the temple against whose columns 
Samson brought his strength to bear. With the fall of the pillars of 



Negro Element in the Nation 281 

its support the whole South would have fallen. It was the policy 
of ruin that was advocated in the North. Garrison and his followers, 
who had nothing personally to lose, did not view it in this Hght, but 
the whole South felt it in the marrow of its bones. 

Calhoun well expressed the state of affairs in his section of the 
country when he declared: "Slavery now preserves in quiet and 
security more than six and a half million human beings, and it could 
not be destroyed without destroying the peace and prosperity of nearly 
half the states in the Union." The general feeling in the South 
toward the Abolitionists was one of bitter hatred. Attempts were 
made to compel the northern states to silence the anti-slavery orators, 
to prohibit the circulation through the mail of anti-slavery speeches, 
and to refuse a hearing in Congress to anti-slavery petitions on the 
plea that they were incendiary and destructive. Many Northerners 
coincided with the Southern advocates in this opinion. Though the 
feeling against slavery spread, there coexisted with it the behef that 
an open quarrel with the South would mean commercial ruin; and 
the anti-slavery sentiment was also neutralized by the nobler feeling 
that the Union must be preserved at all hazards, and that there was 
no constitutional mode of interfering with the slave system. 

The actual condition of the negro over whom such a strife was 
being waged differed materially in different parts of the South, and 
under masters of different character in the same locality. It had its 
side of cruelty, very largely due to the overseers, many of whom were 
men of northern birth; but it had a wider and brighter side of kind- 
ness on the part of the master and of devotion on the part of the 
slave. Its dark side has been made familiar to readers by such 
books as "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Dickens' "American Notes," and 
Edmund Kirk's "Among the Pines;" its brighter side has been 
charmingly depicted in the stories of Thomas Nelson Page, Joel 
Chandler Harris, and Harry Edwards. On the great cotton planta- 
tions of the Gulf States the slave was often overtaxed; in the 
domestic life of Virginia and other states, on the other hand, he 
was as a rule most kindly treated and often a relation of deep affec- 
tion sprang up between him and his master. 

Such was the state of public feeling North and South when, 
with growing bitterness and increased sectionalism, the subject of 
slavery in new states was debated in the Congress of 1850. A 
description of what followed must be left for the following chapter. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE TARIFF AND SLAVERY THE HIGH- 
ROADS TO SECESSION 

The work of the Constitution — Tests of its strength — Effects of cHmatic conditions — 
The demand for emancipation — The Tariff and Slavery in 1787 — Develop- 
ment of the Tariff idea — Tariffs of 1824 and 1828 — Calhoun and his sentiments 
— The Ordinance of Nullification — Jackson checks secession — Clay's Compromise 
— Garrison and abolition — Hostility of feeling — The Compromise of 1850 — 
The Whigs of the South — The "Impending Crisis" — The Kansas struggle — 
The John Brown raid — Its effects on the South — A Republican President — The 
South secedes — Doubt and dismay in the North — A strong peace feeling — The 
Sumter episode — The issue forced and war succeeds. 

'^k T EVER was there a greater work done than that accompHshed 
^k by the Constitution of the United States, the remarkable 
■^ instrument framed by the famous Convention of 1787, and 

accepted by the states, with much tribulation of spirit, during the few 
succeeding years. It was like a great net within whose meshes were 
caught fishes of very different kinds, and very poorly constituted 
to dwell together as a "happy family." From New England to 
Georgia, from the far north to the far south, different interests ruled, 
different people resided, different conditions prevailed. There were 
differences of race, of rehgion, of climate, of industries, of political 
opinions, of several relations of physical and mental temperament. 
Scarcely any two of the new states were alike in character, and as 
distance separated them they grew more diverse, until between 
Massachusetts and South Carolina, for instance, there were almost 
ineradicable differences of condition and sentiment. It was this 
that made it so difficult to combine the states into a Union. This 
could not well have been done had not poverty, anarchy, peril of 
interstate hostihty, danger of loss of independence, rendered union a 
declared necessity and it was then accomplished only through a 

282 



Highroads to Secession 



283 



series of compromises, in which a Httle was yielded on all sides that 
much might be gained. And as the Union grew, as new states were 
admitted, as the West was added to the North and the South, other 
new conditions appeared, other new interests grew up, and the 
powers of the Constitution were still more severely tried. It was 




(Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museums.) 

A HAPPY OLD MAMMY 
She has just been paid for her week's picking, more than enough for her simple wants. 

and is a wonderful instrument to do all that it has done and is doing. 
It could not have done this had not the people whom it united been 
blessed by nature with common sense and political wisdom in a 
phenomenal degree, had they not been wiUing to give and take, to 



284 Highroads to Secession 

bear and forbear, and to trust to the healing effects of time upon the 
ills of the body politic, instead of seeking to cure them by annual 
insurrections, as among the restless and excitable peoples of the 
Spanish-American States. 

It cannot be denied that the strength of the Constitution was 
often perilously tested. Evils arose which seemed past cure; 
hostile sentiments became intense; passions blazed out which 
seemed as if they could be quenched only in blood. More than once 
the Union tottered on the verge of dissolution, and it was perhaps 
inevitable that its strength should in the end be put to the dread 
test of war. For as time passed on questions arose which went 
beyond the power of legislation to heal, hostihties were developed 
which worked hke fire in the brain, and differences of opinion came 
into being with which successive Congresses wrought and struggled in 
vain. It is not surprising that the sword at length was drawn. It 
seems, on the contrary, more surprising that it was kept sheathed 
so long. The ill grew until it was beyond the curative power of 
legislative remedies, and surgery replaced medicine. When peace 
failed, war was appealed to. It is at all times a dangerous remedy, 
but this time it did its work radically, even if violently. If it was 
inevitable, as it seemed to be, we can only be thankful that it proved 
salutary, that the Constitution held fast even under the fearful strain 
of battle, and that the Union emerged stronger than ever and with 
its worst wounds healed. 

The sources of disturbance were in a large measure cHmatic. 
Those that arose between the East and West were of minor import- 
ance as compared with those between the North and South. The 
latter can be described in a few words. The South was almost 
wholly agricultural, the North was largely mechanical. In conse- 
quence an economic difference began that grew with the years. 
The system of slavery which prevailed throughout the whole country 
in time proved to be of no advantage to the North, and the slave- 
holders there grew virtuous and abolished it. It seemed of great 
advantage to the South. In the far South it appeared indispensable. 
It was in consequence retained, and a great industrial distinction 
between the two sections was added to the economical one. These 
were the elements of hostility which led to the great test of the 
strength of the Union. The protective tariff, claimed to be necessary 
to the development of manufacture in the North, was a serious 



Highroads to Secession 285 

disadvantage and source of loss to the South, and it led to the first 
great strain upon the stability of the Union. The opposition to 
slavery, which grev^ to an intensity beyond the control of law and 
justice in the North, was a second great source of unrest and irrita- 
tion in the South. It came at length to appear as if the anti-slavery 
sentiment must soon lead to an attempt to deprive the South of its 
property in slaves by force, and not until they saw this danger 
imminently before them did the southern people resort to the arbitra- 
ment of the sword. 

It was not so much love of slavery as need of a body of easily 
controlled laborers that moved them. Time and experience had 
brought them to believe that their plantations, especially the cotton 
fields, could not be worked profitably without slave labor, and they 
naturally clung to it. Their firmness in this was intensified by the 
demand for emancipation without compensation which was loudly 
made in the North, for they saw themselves threatened with the loss 
of the great property in slaves which they had inherited from their 
fathers, and which constituted their chief wealth. In addition to 
these financial considerations were the emotional ones aroused by 
the false representations made by anti-slavery advocates; the loud 
accusations of cruelty in which a whole people were held responsible 
for the faults of a comparatively few individuals; the unfounded 
calumnies which were set afloat; the stories of suffering and tyranny 
which only proved that those who gave them currency were densely 
ignorant of the kindly and patriarchal relations existing as a rule 
between master and slave. People who talk of something they 
know nothing about find it easy to make mountains out of mole-hills, 
and this was widely the case in the instance of slavery. When all 
this is considered, who can wonder that deep feeling, growing often 
into passionate irritation, was aroused, and that the Southern 
planters felt driven to fight for their households and their wealth 
before it should be too late. All this has nothing to do with the fact 
that to-day the South would not accept slavery again if it were 
offered, and that it has been learned that free labor is as profitable 
as slave. This was not known then, either to North or South, and 
as regards emancipation without compensation, we know now 
thoroughly what it meant in the many years of poverty into which 
the South was thrown after the Civil war, the utter loss of wealth in 
hundreds of cases, the penury to which thousands of the delicately 



286 Highroads to Secession 

born and nurtured were reduced, and the depths of depression in 
which nearly the whole South lay sunk for several decades. 

Returning to the story of interstate subjects of controversy, 
especially those vital ones, the tariff and negro slavery, it may be 
said that neither of them existed as serious problems in the early days 
of our national history. When the tariff was first devised, it was 
as a portion of Hamilton's wise scheme for raising a revenue — the 
idea of protection to industry was then barely thought of. And in 
those days, as we have sought to show, slavery was widely looked 
upon rather as an evil than a benefit. The North discarded it. 
Some of the states of the South were ready to do the same. Vir- 
ginia's ablest sons were strongly opposed to it. Nowhere was it 
earnestly maintained. Only for the invention of the cotton gin 
and the development of the great cotton industry it would prob- 
ably have died a natural death before the nineteenth century had 
far advanced. But the development of cotton culture in the South 
and of manufacture in the North changed the whole industrial 
situation, slave labor and protective tariff became firmly fixed 
institutions, and the evils which they engendered seemed to have 
come among us to stay. 

In the inquiry before us, the question of the tariff takes pre- 
cedence. The first tariff bill passed in this country was signed by 
President Washington on July 4, 1789. It was a revenue measure 
pure and simple. Hamilton had taken into consideration the 
importance of protection to our infant industries, but all he asked 
for were revenue duties. And thus matters continued, in a measure, 
until 18 16. Protection to industry entered to some extent into all 
the tariff bills subsequent to the first, but it was dealt with very 
mildly and revenue continued the principal consideration. In 1816 
a change took place. The end of the war with Great Britain and 
the opening of our ports to commerce brought the products of 
England's looms here in vast quantities, at prices with which the 
poorly equipped American factories could not compete. There was 
reason to beheve that the prices were made specially low in order to 
break down American competition and force this country to depend 
upon English manufacturers. Petitions for a protective tariff 
poured in upon Congress and such a tariff was enacted, increasing 
the duties on cotton and woolen goods as a measure of protection to 
American factory industries. This tariff was not specially a 



Highroads to Secession 



287 



Northern measure. In fact, while many Southerners supported it, 
many New England merchants, whose interests were mercantile, 
opposed it. Though it was passed, its benefit was not marked, for- 
eign goods still coming largely into our ports. 

The actual tariff trouble between North and South began in 
1824. By that time manufactures had largely developed in New 




THE FIRST CAPITOL OF THE CONFEDERACY, MONTGOMERY, ALA. 

In this building President Jefferson Davis was inaugurated, February 18tli, 1861. The Alabama Convention 
assembled here January 17th, 1861. and declared the State independent. 

England and protection was vigorously demanded in that section. 
In the South a different sentiment had recently arisen. Free impor- 
tation of goods, with their consequent cheapness, was evidently most 
advantageous to agricultural communities. The tariff question 
now first came strongly into politics and made its appearance as a 



288 Highroads to Secession 

sectional problem. The congressional debate on the subject was 
earnest and protracted, but New England won over the South, and a 
new tariff with increased rates of duty was enacted. 

In 1828 the tariff question became vital. The "Era of Good 
Feehng," which had prevailed during Monroe's non-partisan 
administration, vanished with the election of 1824. A nev/ party 
arose, the National Republican, headed by President Adams and 
strongly advocating protective duties upon imports; while the Demo- 
cratic party came out firmly in opposition, with free trade or tariff 
for revenue only as the strong plank in its platform. But the new 
party controlled Congress and the radical steps which it took were 
such as could not fail to arouse vigorous opposition. The tariff 
of 1828 embodied the protective principle in an extreme form, very 
high duties being laid on wool and hemp and increased duties on 
many other articles. The result was a feeling of exasperation in 
the South, where the new measure became known as the "Tariff of 
Abominations." The opposition to it was bitter and intense. 
While it gave strong support to the feeble manufacturing interests of 
the North, it largely raised the cost of Hving to agriculturists in all 
sections, and was especially distasteful to the South, at that time 
almost wholly devoted to agriculture. It was strongly contested in 
Congress, it was hotly reprobated throughout the land of cotton 
and corn, and its ill effects were particularly felt in South Carolina, 
or at all events that state was most outspoken in opposition. John 
C. Calhoun, then Vice-President of the United States, and the ablest 
advocate of the rights of the South, now came out vigorously in print, 
in his striking "South Carolma Exposition," in which he declared 
that the Constitution gave Congress power to levy taxes only for 
revenue; that protective duties were therefore unconstitutional; 
and that any state had the right to declare an unconstitutional law 
null and void and forbid its execution within the state Hmits. South 
Carohna, he declared, would agitate for its repeal. If this proved 
of no effect, the offensive law would be declared null and void. 
Such was the first appearance of the famous doctrine of "nuUifica- 
tion," which in four years was to bring the Union to the verge of 
dissolution. Jackson was elected President in 1828, with Calhoun 
again as Vice-President. As chairman of the Senate, the famous 
orator was removed from the arena of discussion and was not able 
to make his remarkable powers felt upon Congressional movements, 




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Highroads to Secession 289 

but he continued decisively at the head of the opposition to the 
protective poUcy. From 1788 to 1861 one question continually 
made its appearance in Congressional debate: Was this a single 
sovereign nation, or was it a league of separate states ? Debate on 
this question reached its height during Jackson's first term. Cal- 
houn and his following held that the Union was a "compact," from 
which any state might withdraw at will. This was not alone his 
view, but it was the South Carolina view. All the Congressmen 
from that state supported it. As Calhoun was prevented from 
presenting it on the floor of Congress, Robert Y. Hayne, a strong 
and eloquent speaker, took his place, his great debate on the subject 
with Daniel Webster being the most famous passage at arms in 
oratory which the legislative halls of the United States have ever 
beheld. 

Hayne maintained that nullification was a constitutional rem- 
edy for state ills, it being a " reserved right" of the states. In debate 
it must be acknowledged that he met with more than his match in 
Webster, one of the world's great masters in oratory. But victory 
in oratory does not mean conviction. Calhoun, Hayne and their 
party retained their opinions still, and the refusal of Congress to 
repeal the tarijBF of 1828 brought the difficulty to a head. In 1832 
Calhoun resigned the Vice-Presidency, called a Convention in 
South Carolina, and the famous "Ordinance of Nullification" was 
passed. This declared the tariff of 1828 "null and void" in South 
Carolina. The state went farther than this, threatening, if inter- 
fered with in this action, to secede from the Union. 

For the first time in the history of the United States the Union 
of the states was in imminent peril. The doctrine of the right of 
secession was definitely promulgated. Had the other states of the 
South joined South Carolina in this action it is impossible to tell 
what the result might have been. The Civil War would perhaps, 
have been antedated by thirty years, and possibly have had a dif- 
ferent ending. But the other states remained impassive. There 
were no Calhouns to stir them to action. Apparently the evil did 
not appeal to them as demanding so perilous a cure. However 
strongly their citizens may have felt about the tariff, they were not 
wrought up to the pitch of secession, and South Carolina was left 
to bear its burden alone. 

There could be but one result, with a man like Andrew Jackson 

19 



290 Highroads to Secession 

in the Presidential chair. Southern born and advocate of low tariff 
as he was, he could not perceive that there was any warrant for such 
extreme action, and felt it his duty as President oi the United States 
to take immediate and effective measures to sustain and enforce the 
action of Congress in its tariff enactment. Calhoun was then back 
again in Congress, now a member of the Senate. A bill was before 
that body to give the administration special powers in the collection 
of the duties — the "Force Bill" it was called. Calhoun opposed 
it in one of the most famous speeche's of his career; but the bill was 
passed, and Jackson is said to have privately warned the orator 
that the instant any resistance was made to the government in South 
Carohna he would be arrested for high treason. 

Yet however stern and determined "Old Hickory" may have 
been, Congress proved more phable. It either recognized that 
it was in the wrong or feared the consequences of its sectional action, 
and made important concessions to South Carolina. Henry Clay, 
the South's ablest orator and statesman, came forward with his 
famous compromise bill, under which the existing duties were to be 
decreased by a fixed proportion each year, until they reached a 
minimum of twenty per cent, in 1842. This healed the sore, both 
parties — as seems the fixed rule in such controversies^claiming to 
have triumphed, and both, doubtless, glad enough to have escaped 
the danger that lay before them. South Carolina, finding herself 
unsupported by her sister states, had excellent reason to be gratified; 
and Congress, knowing well that it stood on the brink of a volcano 
whose explosion might involve the whole country, must have felt an 
equal sense of relief. It need only be said further, that though the 
tariff question has remained a prominent source of political agitation 
from that day to this, no thought of deahng with it in any other way 
than by legislation has ever since arisen. The facts here given 
were stated in the biographical sketch of Calhoun, but this repeti- 
tion at this point seems in place. 

The removal of this peril only disclosed another which was 
then just rising into view, and was destined greatly to surpass the 
other in the magnitude of its results. This was the anti-slavery 
agitation. It had existed, as we have seen, for many years in a mild 
form in which slavery was to be cured by gradual emancipation. 
No one objected to this, and it may be that no one imagined that 
anything would come of it. But in 1831 anti-slavery took on a new 



Highroads to Secession 291 

and aggressive form, when William Lloyd Garrison issued his 
Liberator, in which he proclaimed slavery as a mortal sin, declared 
for immediate emancipation without compensation to the slave- 
holder, and maintained that all laws upholding slavery were, before 
God, null and void. Here was "nullification" with a new applica- 
tion and a very dangerous one. As the great crisis of tariff nullifica- 
tion passed away, this infant doctrine appeared, noisy but feeble, 
few as yet regarding it otherwise than as a discordant example of 
fanaticism, scarcely worth notice. But this feeling did not persist. 
The agitation was kept up. The anti-slavery faction grew. In 
time it evolved from a faction into a party, from a party into a 
power, and the whole country was torn and rent with the dissension 
to which it gave rise. It is true that even until i860 there was a 
strong party in the North which sympathized with the South and 
held that it was fully justified in maintaining its institutions. With 
others the anti-slavery sentiment was neutralized by the feeling 
that the Union must be preserved at all hazards and that there 
were no constitutional means of interfering with the slave system. 
But with a rapidly growing number all such sentiments were lost 
beneath the vehement demands of the abolition advocates. 

Naturally the South was moved to bitterness by this fierce 
detraction and especially by the extreme and unfounded statements 
which accompanied it. Examples of occasional ill treatment of a 
slave were luridly pictured and paraded as ordinary occurrences, 
while the real kindness and consideration with which the slaves as a 
general rule were treated found no abiding place in the anti-slavery 
papers or the platform fulminations. A large party in the North 
was blinded by these misrepresentations to the actual condition of the 
negro under the slave system, the masters being made to pose as 
cruel tyrants, the slaves as victims of frightful atrocities. While 
there were many who knew the untruth of this, it was so widely 
circulated and strenuously insisted on as to find a multitude of 
believers. 

The growing hostility of feeling in the country made its way 
into Congress, whose membership represented the varying shades 
of public opinion, and on whose floors the subject of slavery led to 
acrimonious debates and growing irritation. The abolitionists of 
the North did not fail to bombard Congress with petitions of varied 
kinds, and John Quincy Adams, the late President, who was a 



292 Highroads to Secession 

member of the House from 1 83 1 to 1 848, diligently presented and 
argued in favor of these, much to the irritation of Southern members. 

The trouble grew pronounced in 1846, at the outset of the war 
with Mexico. An appropriation bill was introduced in the House 
to pay for the territory which it was expected we would gain by the 
contest. David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, offered an 
amendment to the effect that slavery should be prohibited in this 
territory when acquired. This was the famous "Wilmot Proviso," 
which precipitated one of the most acrimonious debates yet held on 
the subject. It was defeated, but only by a small majority, and the 
members from the South clearly saw in it the swelling of the tide of 
anti-slavery sentiment which was accumulating against them. 
It was the beginning of a war of opinion on the floors of Congress 
which did not end until actual war began in the field. In 1850 
the storm burst. There was war in House and Senate. Above 
all the other political problems of the day rose high the over- 
mastering one of the extension of slavery. Congress was torn by 
prolonged and bitter discussion. The country was stirred by 
threats and denunciations. Strong hints of secession arose on both 
sides. All the great weights of oratory. Clay, Webster, Calhoun, 
Douglas and Seward chief among them, took part in these debates, 
which have never been equaled in our history for eloquence and 
acerbity. 

Should California be admitted as a slave state ? What should 
be the status of the rest of the new territory ^ Such were the primary 
questions, from which various secondary ones arose. To what the 
fierce Congressional struggle might have led but for the moderate 
counsels and convincing oratory of Henry Clay it is impossible to 
say. This great orator, now an old and feeble but intensely earnest 
man, came forward as a peace-maker and proposed a compromise 
which for the time being settled the question, though at the cost of 
his own life, for he never recovered from the exhaustion of this 
greatest effort of his career. 

The end reached in these acrimonious debates was a com- 
promise which admitted Cahfornia as a free state, permitted ths 
new Territories of Utah and New Mexico to settle for themselves 
the question of slavery, forbade the slave trade in the District of 
Columbia, but enacted a strict fugitive slave law, a law for which 
the Constitution already provided, and which was sustained by the 



Highroads to Secession 



293 



Supreme Court in the famous Dred Scott decision of 1857. Such 
was the "Compromise of 1850," which many thought would bring 
to a final end the controversy between the two great sections of the 
country. 

To the Abolitionists the fugitive slave law was as fuel to fire. 
They defied it in every possible way. The Underground Railway 
was the outcome of this defiance. By it a chain of secret stations 
was estabhshed, from 
one to the other of | 
which the slave was I 
guided at night until at 
last he reached the 
Canada border. The 
most used of these 
routes in the East was 
from Baltimore to New 
York, thence north 
through New England. 
That most employed 
in the West was from 
Cincinnati to Detroit. 
It has been estimated 
that not fewer than 
thirty thousand slaves 
were thus assisted to 
escape from their 
owners. That the feel- 
ing of hostility in the 
South was intensified 
by this illegal and de- 
fiant action of the 
Aboliti onists need 
scarcely be stated. Its 
people felt they were being maligned, viUified, misrepresented, 
wronged in every way. They w^ere being, in disregard of law, 
robbed of property that represented a great money value to 
them. Their rights were scorned, the Acts of Congress and 
the decision of the Supreme Court ignored and defied, and the 
law of the land set at nought. Between the friends and foes of the 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
(1809-1865. Two terms (died in office), 1861-1865.; 



294 Highroads to Secession 

institution of slavery to be found in the North was a large 
body of people who, while opposed to slavery, were obedient to the 
laws, and confined their efforts to opposing its extension. But their 
voice was little heard, while that of the much smaller class of uncon- 
ditional abolitionists was loud in the land, and it was the latter that 
set the tune to which the whole country marched as the decade of 
danger slowly moved on. 

The death of Clay, shortly after the passage of his great com- 
promise bill, left the moderate party in the South without a leader. 
Clay was at the head of the Southern Whigs, who looked upon 
slavery as a necessity, but opposed its extension and were in favor 
of its eradication by gradual emancipation. John J. Crittenden of 
Kentucky, Attorney-General in Fillmore's Cabinet, and John Bell 
of Tennessee, a Senator in Congress, became rivals for the leader- 
ship after Clay's death, Bell winning by his strong opposition to the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in 1854. It was this that gave 
him the Southern Whig nomination for the Presidency in i860. 
Yet in the Congress of 1853-54 nearly all the Whig members of 
Congress from the South voted in favor of the repeal, while all the 
Whig members from the North voted against it, a fact which broke 
up this old party into two factions, and in 1856 led to the absorption 
of the Northern Whigs into the new Republican party, together with 
the Free Soil, American, and other organizations of like character. 
A powerful new party was thus made, whose cardinal principle 
was opposition to the extension of slavery. 

Only twenty-five years had passed since Garrison's Liberator 
first appeared, but in that brief period political evolution in this 
country had been so rapid that the people had become divided into 
two great parties, with the question of slavery as the great bone of 
contention. It is not to be wondered at that many in the South, 
seeing the force of its opponents growing into what might become a 
crushing weight, began to feel that the die was cast, and that their 
one hope of salvation now lay in the strength of the "good right 
arm." Danger was near at hand and they might be forced to 
strike for safety before it became too late. 

At this juncture there appeared a book which served only to 
throw oil on the flames. It was called "The Impending Crisis in 
the South," and was the work of one Hinton R. Helper, a native of 
North Carolina, who professed to be the son of a slave-holder and a 



Highroads to Secession 295 

Southerner by instinct, thought and habit. His book did not accord 
with his proiessions. While its statistics were true and its history 
correct, its language was violent and threatening, its conclusions 
exaggeration, and its general tone incendiary. Its denunciation of 
the great slaveholders, who were given such names as "Oligarchs," 
"Slaveocrats, " "Lords of the Lash," etc., was certainly very ill- 
calculated to put an end to the system which he so intemperately 
assailed. 

During the period in question the struggle was for a time 
diverted to a part of the western territory then growing rapidly in 
population. The territory of Kansas demanded admission as a 
state, and this demand led to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, introduced 
by Stephen A. Douglas. This bill in effect repealed the Missouri 
Compromise, since it left the question as to whether slavery should 
be carried into the new territories to the decision of the settlers them- 
selves. As a consequence, immigration was directed by both the 
anti-slavery and the pro-slavery parties to Kansas, each determined 
on obtaining a majority that would enable it to control the form of 
the proposed State Constitution. Then began a series of acts of 
violence which almost amounted to civil war. "Bleeding Kansas" 
became a common phrase in the abolition camp, and the struggle 
on its soil between the two factions went on with a bitterness that in 
the end took the form of armed conflict. 

Prominent among the armed supporters of tree-state ideas in 
Kansas was John Brown, a fanatical abolitionist whose watchword 
was at all times Action. "Talk," he said, "is a national institution; 
but it does no good for the slave." He believed that slavery could 
be coped with only by armed force. His theory was that the way to 
make free men of slaves was for the slaves themselves to resist any 
attempt to coerce them by their masters. He was an unreasoning 
fanatic in that he did not stop to measure probabilities, or to take 
account of the written law, while the right of slaveholders to the 
possession of their property had no place in his code of morals. 
His attempt at Harper's Ferry was without reasonable hope, and as 
the intended beginning of a great military movement was a ridiculous 
fiasco. But there was that about the man that none could call 
ridiculous. Rash and unreasoning as his action was, he was yet, 
even by his enemies, recognized as a man of unswerving conscience, 
of high ideals, of deep belief in the brotherhood of mankind. No 



296 Highroads to Secession 

reasonable man at that day could be found to applaud his plot, but 
the incident had an effect on the minds of the people altogether out 
of proportion to its intrinsic character, its effect being to increase 
the strength of abolition sentiment in the North. The strenuous 
efforts made to put John Brown in the attitude of a martyr had 
much to do with this result, in the minds of those in whom feeling 
was supreme over reason. 

John W. Burgess, a professor of political science in Columbia 
University, in ''The Civil War and the Constitution," thus 
expresses himself in reference to the John Brown attempt: 

"Seen from the point of view of the influence of such fears 
(those of slave insurrection) upon the growth of the still half-con- 
scious anti-slavery spirit existing through large sections of the South, 
nothing could have been more untoward, wickedly harmful, and 
positively diabohcal than the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry 
on the night of the i6th of October, 1859. If the whole thing, both 
as to time, methods and results, had been planned hy His Satanic 
Majesty himself, it could not have succeeded better in setting the 
sound conservative movements of the age at naught, and in creating 
a state of feeling which offered the most capital opportunities for 
the triumph of political insincerity, radicalism and rascality over 
their opposites. No man who is acquainted with the change of 
feeling which occurred in the South between the i6th of October, 
1859, and the 1 6th of November of the same year can regard the 
Harper's Ferry villainy as anything other than one of the chiefest 
crimes of our history. It established and re-established the control 
of the great radical slaveholders over the non-slaveholders, the little 
slaveholders, and the more liberal of the larger slaveholders, which 
had already begun to be loosened. It created anew a solidarity of 
feeling between them all, which was felt by all with an intensity that 
overcame every other sentiment." 

The long examination made by the Senate committee failed 
"to reveal the conscious complicity of anybody in the atrocity out- 
side of the twenty-one villains who followed Brown." But the 
demonstrations in parts of the North in favor of Brown certainly 
did not tend to convince the people of the South that he and his 
fellows stood alone in their purpose. Professor Burgess continues: 
" Brown and his band had murdered five men and wounded some 
eight or ten more in their criminal movement on Harper's Ferry, 



Highroads to Secession 297 

Add to this the fact that Brown certainly intended the 
wholesale massacre of the whites by the blacks in case that should 
be found necessary to effect his purposes, and it was certainly 
natural that the tolling of the church bells, the holding of prayer 
meetings for the soul of John Brown, the draping of houses, the 
half-masting of flags, etc., in many parts of the North, should appear 
to the people of the South to be evidences of a wickedness that knew 
no bounds, and which was bent upon the destruction of the South 
by any means necessary to accomplish that result. It was reported 
throughout the South that the Senate of Massachusetts came within 
three votes of passing a resolution for adjourning on the day of the 
execution. 

"It was of course possible for people far removed from any 
peril to make a distinction between approval of Brown's act and 
commiseration for his fate; and to attribute all of these demon- 
strations to the latter feehng, but it was simply impossible for those 
surrounded by all the dangers which Brown's movements threatened 
to call up to appreciate any such distinctions. To them they 
appeared the veriest cant and hypocrisy. Especially did terror and 
bitterness take possession of the hearts of the women of the South, 
who saw in slave insurrection not only destruction and death, but 
that which to feminine virtue is a thousand times worse than the 
most terrible death. For those who would excite such a movement 
or sympathize with anybody who would excite such a movement, the 
women of the South felt a hatred as undying as virtue itself. Men 
might still hesitate, and consider, and argue, but the women were 
united and resolute, and their unanimous exhortation was: ' Men of 
the South, defend the honor of your mothers, your wives, your sisters, 
and your daughters. It is your highest and most sacred duty.' " 

Certainly the Harper's Ferry attempt to create a slave insurrec- 
tion, hopeless and insane as it seemed, went farther than any other 
occurrence of the times to unite all classes in the South, and to make 
inevitable that appeal to arms which before was simply possible. 
The seeming wide sympathy in the North with this attempt added 
immensely to its effect upon Southern sentiment, and the conviction 
grew among all classes that now the white men of the South must 
stand together and all internal differences be set aside in the presence 
of the terrible catastrophe with which they had been and at any time 
might again be threatened. This was no political difference of 



298 Highroads to Secession 

opinion, but the threat of a mortal peril to every household in the 
South, and one that could be safely met only by the rifle and the 
sword. 

When the time for the election of i860 arrived this feeling was 
still strong in men's minds throughout the South. It was a great 
social peril added to the poHtical and property perils which had long 
impended. The anti-slavery party had shown itself strong in 1856; 
would it win in i860, and if it won what course would the adminis- 
tration based on its principles take ^ It was said and was widely 
beheved by the masses that if Lincoln was elected men of similar 
character to John Brown and Hinton Helper would be chosen to 
fill official positions in the South, and every government bureau 
would be a hatching place for conspiracies and negro insur- 
rections. To those who thought such a result probable there 
seemed no way to escape murder and pillage except secession 
from the Union and the setting up of a government of their own. 

Such was the feeling with which the men of the South went to 
the polls on that November day in i860. Those of the North went 
there with a feeling as serious, for imminent peril to the country was 
in the air. In 1856 Fremont, the RepubHcan candidate, had carried 
eleven out of the fifteen free states. How many could Lincoln carry 
in i860 .? But one hope remained to the South. It still had hosts 
of friends in the North. The Democratic party there continued 
strong and was largely in sympathy with Southern institutions. 
But unfortunately for their hopes this great party became divided 
against itself at this critical juncture. Its strongest champion, 
Stephen A. Douglas, had lost the confidence of the leaders of the 
party in the South, and the perilous step was taken of nominating 
two candidates. Even without this, however, their triumph at the 
polls would have been hopeless, for Lincoln was elected over all his 
opponents by a plurality of seventy-seven electoral votes. 

The problem was now squarely before the South. Should it 
accept the result and rest quiet under the supremacy of an anti- 
slavery President and Congress, trusting to their generous considera- 
tion .? It seemed to the Southern people too much Hke the case of 
the lamb resting under the paws of the wolf. Would peace, honor, 
and harmony result; or confiscation, gradual or immediate emanci- 
pation, possibly slave insurrection and assassination ? The situa- 
tion was critical. The issue was before them and they did not take 



Highroads to Secession 299 

long to decide. A§ before, South Carolina did not wait for the 
verdict of her sister states, but boldly took the initiative. A con- 
vention of her citizens was called and on the 20th of December, 1 860, 
a step big with threat of dire consequences was taken; an ordinance 
of secession from the Union was passed. 

This time South Carolina was not left to stand alone. Swayed 
by a common feehng, state after state swung into line, and before the 
end of January, 1861, five others of the sovereign communities of the 
South — Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana — 
had seceded. Texas followed early in February, and the whole line 
of Gulf States was out of the Union so far as an ordinance of seces- 
sion could accompHsh this purpose. The middle tier of States — 
Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia — ^were slower 
in falling in with this movement. Not until Fort- Sumter had been 
fired upon and armies were actually in the field, did they join their 
more southerly sisters. The three border States of Maryland, Ken- 
tucky and Missouri held aloof, though strong efforts were made in 
the latter two states to bring them into the fold. On February 4th 
delegates from the first six seceding states met at Montgomery, Ala- 
bama, and organized a new government, under the name of "The 
Confederate States of America." Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, 
was chosen President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice- 
President; a Constitution was adopted in March, and the new nation 
was fairly launched. 

Such was the outcome of the two great elements of dissension 
that arose between the states after the formation of the Constitution 
in 1787. At that date one of these was non-existent and the other 
gave little concern. Yet they afterward gathered like rolling snow 
until they became appalling in magnitude. One of them, the tariff 
issue, threatened the dissolution of the Union in 1833. The other, 
that of slavery, for the time being accomplished it in 1861. Before 
the Government at Washington lay a frightful task. Before the 
Government at Montgomery lay a desolating struggle. But in the 
intense excitement of the moment neither perceived the magnitude 
of the crisis, and both plunged into the dread alternative of war, 
moved by fallacious hopes. Both sides were desrined to be terribly 
undeceived. 

At first indeed it looked almost as if the seceding states would 
be allowed to go in peace, The Government at Washington vacil- 



300 Highroads to Secession 

lated and was uncertain in its movements. A Peace Conference was 
held at Washington which proposed to offer terms of conciliation to 
the South and suggested radical amendments to the Constitution of 
the United States, which would have removed all possibility of future 
legislation in regard to slavery. Delegates from North and South 
alike took part in this conference, but its proposals were rejected by 
the Senate. In fact, Virginia had refused to accept them in advance, 
and movements of this kind were hopeless from the start; the lower 
South had gone too far to recede. It had taken its stand and pro- 
posed to abide by it. And the North was far from inclined to 
assume the roll of a suppliant. 

The old administration passed away and the new one began. 
The whole country waited in strained expectation to learn what 
action it would take. Abraham Lincoln was a new element in the 
situation. He was known to be active and able in the political field, 
but his character as a man of action was yet to be shown. Would he 
prove a Jackson or a Buchanan, a man of war or a man of peace ? 
Before him lay as dread a situation as any man had ever been called 
upon to face. The strength of his anti-slavery sentiments was well 
known, but would he have the boldness and daring to draw the 
sword against the South or would he be moved by pacific counsels 
and shrink from the frowning front of war .? 

The opening weeks of his administration left all this in doubt. 
He seemed in a hesitating and doubtful mood. In this, much of the 
North was with him. The party which had elected him grew faint- 
hearted and demoralized when it faced the consequences of its 
victory. It seemed frightened by what it had done. Its press was 
all at sea. Even Horace Greely, the leader in Republican journal- 
ism, argued in favor of the right of secession, and said, "We hope 
never to live in a Republic whereof one section is pinned to the 
residue by bayonets." Meetings were held by the people in which 
conciliation and compromise were alone preached. The Demo- 
crats of the North strongly opposed any attempt at coercion. Even 
the AboHtionists spoke to the same effect, and Wendell PhilHps, 
their great orator, said that the Gulf States had done only what they 
had the full right to do, and that "Abraham Lincoln has no right to 
a soldier in Fort Sumter." This feeling existed even in the Presi- 
dent's cabinet. Seward was bent on maintaining peace, and most of 
the other members agreed with him. 



Highroads to Secession 301 

Such being the state of feeHng in the North, it is not surprising 
that the new President remained inactive, nor that the Confederate 
government grew confident. Commissioners were appointed to 
visit Washington and arrange for a peaceful separation and a just 
division of the pubHc property and pubhc debt, and to all outward 
appearance events seemed moving toward the pacific consumma- 
tion of the radical step that had been taken. Upon the surface it 
began to look as if two nations might peacefully exist side by side 
upon the soil of the United States. 

Yet this was exceedingly unhkely to be the case. The aggres- 
sive element in the North v/as stunned for the time being, but was 
sure to rise again. All it awaited was an event to justify it and a 
voice to call it into action. The event soon came, and the voice was 
soon heard. The fate of the great nation vibrated around Fort 
Sumter in Charleston harbor, nearly the sole stronghold in the 
Southern states which still remained in Federal hands. 

Upon this fortress now all eyes were fixed, about it the full tide 
of events turned. The government at Montgomery seemed 
inclined to force the issue, for they sent Beauregard to Charleston 
and practically placed Sumter under siege, surrounding it with 
threatening guns. President Lincoln accepted the issue, determined 
to maintain the Federal garrison in the fort, and took steps to supply 
it with provisions, — though he promised to make no attempt "to 
throw in men, arms, or ammunition, except in case of an attack on 
the Fort." The provision transports were sent, and the Confed- 
eracy at once took decisive action. General Beauregard demanded 
the evacuation of the fort. This was declined and at about half- 
past four in the morning of April 12, 1861, the guns of the Confed- 
erate batteries began to hurl their balls against the walls of a fort 
over which floated the United States flag. 

All must acknowledge at this day that the step thus taken was, 
to say the least, precipitate. Members of President Davis's own 
Cabinet protested strongly and bitterly against it, declaring that the 
first shot fired at Sumter would put an end to all hopes of a peaceful 
separation and hurl the country into practical war. Their protests 
were in vain, the shot was fired, and the result which they predicted 
came. The North rose in multitudes in response to the President's 
call to arms. The sentiment was widespread that the South had 
begun the war; the old flag had been fired on; the honor of the 



302 Highroads to Secession 

national standard must be maintained; and in the wave of feeling 
that swept through the North all doubts and vacillations vanished 
and all parties united in the determination to avenge what was 
declared to be an insult to the flag. 

Had the Confederate Government committed an error in its 
action ? Could war in any event have been avoided ? This question 
we may safely answer in the negative. In the hostile state of feeling 
existing, even if that event had not happened, some other would 
inevitably have brought the two sections to blows. Such a result 
was probably unavoidable, and it was perhaps as well that the issue 
should be forced at once. Yet no action could have been taken by 
the South better calculated to cement all parties in the North and 
strengthen the hands of the government at Washington by a united 
popular support. A new issue had been given to the people. The 
question of slavery versus abolition vanished and that of the honor 
of the flag arose, and under this war-cry the young blood of the North 
swarmed in thousands to the ranks. In the South a similar unity 
of feeling prevailed. Regiments, corps, armies gathered and marched 
exultantly northward, eager to strike for their homes and their 
cause. The angel of peace fled in dismay from the land, the lurid 
demon of war swooped downward upon its smiling fields, and over 
a vast area the roar of the cannon replaced the cheerful sounds 
of peaceful industry. The greatest war in recent history had begun. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE GREAT CONEEDERATE LEADERS 
OF THE CIVIL WAR 



Lessons of the Civil War — Able Commanders of the South The character of Ro- 
bert E. Lee — His early career — General Imboden's tribute to Lee — Lee's Pro- 
phetic forecast — His simple habits — Lee in command — The final struggle — Lee 
after the war — A touching story — Stonewall Jackson — His life in col!e<Te — His 
religious faith — How he got his title — In the Shenandoah valley — His services 
and death — A Southern hero — The career of Albert Sidney Johnston — In com- 
mand in Kentucky — The victory at Shiloh — Death in triumph — The fruits of 
victory lost — Cavalry heroes of the Confederate army — General Stuart's career 
— His first great raid — At Bull Run and Chambersburg — The sweep round 
Meade's Army — Death in battle 

BEFORE all those who more or less actively participated in the 
civil or military events of our Civil War shall have passed 
away, it might be well to crystallize into history some of its 
forgotten lessons. When we turn aside from the beaten historical 
paths to explore the forgotten issues and movements of an era now 
more than forty years old, we are startled at the magnitude of 
questions in those days which seem now to be accepted as incapable 
of controversy. The student of to-day sees only the fact that the 
issues which led to the war were natural and irrepressible, and that 
in such a contest, with a vast preponderance of numbers, wealth and 
material power on one side, there could scarely be but one result 
from the struggle; but there are few to-day who have knowledge of 
the then actual state of feehng not only in the commercial cities of 
the North but throughout its whole business interests, and it will 
doubtless surprise many readers when they are told that even as late 
as September, 1862, when the war had been in progress for nearly 

303 



304 



Great Confederate Leaders 



two years, scores of thousands of thoroughly loyal supporters of the 
Government in every state strongly opposed the idea of emanci- 
pation of the slaves. 

While it is highly probable that the slavery issue w^ould have 
culminated in civil war at some time during the century, we are 
warranted in assuming that the sectional conflict begun in i86l 
would not then have reached an appeal to the sword but for the fact 
that each section believed the other incapable of accepting civil war. 
Had the Northern and Southern people understood each other then 
as well as they under- 
stood each other after 
the soldiers of the blue 
and the gray had ex- 
hibited their matchless 
heroism on so many 
battlefields,the election 
and inauguration of 
Abraham Lincoln as 
President would not 
have led to the terrible 
result that followed. 
Few there were then 
who believed that the 
South could marshal 
and maintain an army 
of half a million men, 
ready to display hero- 
ism and accept sacri- 
fice in the highest de- 
gree in defense of its 
threatened institutions. 

And few dreamed 
that the North stood 
ready to call more than a million men into the field for four years 
of dreadful conflict, as the price of the perpetuity of the Union. 
Had they known each other better then, had they known that the 
heroism of ancient Greece would be equaled or outdone on 
American soil, both sides would certainly have hesitated long before 
plunging into the horrors of fraternal war. 




GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE 
The typical Southern gentleman and soldier. 



Great Confederate Leaders 305 

But it is not causes or contingencies with which we are here con- 
cerned, but results. Rarely has there been a war which called such 
a number of able commanders into the field, some of them or the 
highest military genius, many of them with a dash and daring equaling 
the boldness and valor of Napoleon's famous marshals. We cannot 
be invidious in our selections; able and heroic leaders appeared in 
the armies of the North and the South ahke; but it is with the latter 
that we here propose to deal; with the gallant cavahers of the South- 
land who led their ragged and hungry armies against outnumbering 
hosts and won victory upon a hundred fields. Shall we name these 
brilliant soldiers ? The fist is longer than there is any need to give, 
but such great commanders and valiant subordinates as Lee, Jack- 
son, J. E. and A. S. Johnston, Bragg, Hood, Beauregard, Stuart, 
Forrest, Longstreet, Hampton, Morgan, Early, and many others who 
might be named, form a most brilliant galaxy of able soldiers. And 
worthy of honor as they were, equally deserving of praise were the 
gallant fellows who marched in the ranks, enduring cold, hunger, 
weariness, and a dozen ills beside, yet each man of them ever ready 
when the tocsin call to duty was sounded, and each, however humble 
his place, doing his work as bravely and nobly as the highest among 
them all. A grand army was that which was brought together from 
the fields, hamlets and cities of the South, and for four long years 
endured every privation in its unyielding struggle against all the 
mighty power and resources of the North. Those in the future who 
sound the praise of valor and endurance in the tented field can never 
forget the armies that marched and fought under Lee and his brave 
lieutenants, and may justly compare them with the noblest the world 
has ever seen. 

In seeking here, however, to accord them such honor as we 
may, we cannot select instances of special worth from the ranks, or 
even give the story of all the leaders of brilliant powers. Lack of 
space forbids us from saying a tithe of what might justly be said, 
and instead of seeking to give all the great deeds of the war we are 
obliged to confine ourselves to the records of the worthiest of the 
leaders, and especially of the one man who won for himself a fixed 
place among the great captains of history. General Robert Edward 
Lee. 

Of all the men whose character and ability were displayed in the 
great Civil War there was none in either the Confederate or the 



3o6 Great Confederate Leaders 

Union army whose greatness, moral and military, is more generally 
acknowledged than that of the famous Confederate commander-in- 
chief. His abihty as a soldier and his character as a man and a 
Christian are ahke appreciated, and it is not too much to say that 
he is recognized, in North and South ahke, in Europe as well as in 
America, as one of the greatest soldiers and one of the noblest and 
purest men that modern history has to show. Shall we not say with 
Shakespeare? "He was a man, take him for all in all; we shall 
not look upon his Hke again." 

It is a singular circumstance in Lee's history that he, the great 
Southern hero of the Civil War, was the son of the famous Revolu- 
tionary general "Light-Horse Harry Lee." When we remember 
that eighty years passed between the end of the Revolutionary and 
the beginning of the Civil War, this fact seems extraordinary, and 
is perhaps one without parallel in history. But the younger hero 
was not born till 1807, more than thirty years after his famous 
father drew his sword in the Revolution, and was still only fifty- 
four years of age when the Civil War began. He was a Virginian 
and the scion of a line of well-known and esteemed Virginians. With 
a natural inclination toward his father's profession, he became a 
student at West Point, graduating in 1829, and being made captain 
in 1838. In the Mexican War he served as chief engineer in Scott's 
army, winning high honors. The capture of Vera Cruz has been 
ascribed to his skill and he did noble work in the battles before the 
capital. For three years later on he was superintendent of the 
West Point Mihtary Academy, whose standard of efficiency he did 
much to raise. In 1859 he commanded the troops which captured 
John Brown and put an end to his insensate attempt. 

When the Civil War broke out Lee was in great doubt what 
course to take. While he disapproved of secession, the Southern 
idea of loyalty to his state was strong in his mind. In March, 1861, 
he was appointed colonel of cavalry in the United States army, and 
held this commission until Virginia adopted an ordinance of seces- 
sion. Then he hesitated no longer; his state had called him and 
he felt that he must obey; he resigned his commission, sending a 
letter to General Scott in which he expressed the deep pain it cost him 
to take this step. Writing to his sister, he said, "Though I recog- 
nize no necessity for this state of things, and would have forborne 
and pleaded to the end for redress of grievances, yet in my own per- 



Great Confederate Leaders 307 

son I had to meet the question whether I should take part against my 
native state. With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling 
of loyalty and duty as an American citizen, I have not been able to 
make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my chil- 
dren, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the 
army, and, save in defense of my native state, I hope I may never 
be called upon to drav^ my sv^ord." 

He was quickly called upon to "defend his native state." 
None realized better than he that a long and bloody war was coming, 
and that Virginia would be the chief battle-ground. General Im- 
boden has given an interesting account of the armies of Virginia 
and their commander. He had gone to Richmond to urge the 
sending of troops to Harper's Ferry. "It was Sunday," he writes, 
"and I found the General entirely alone, in a small room on Bank 
street, near the Capitol. It was the first time I had met him, and I am 
sure he was the handsomest man I had ever seen. His hair and 
mustache— he wore no beard — were only slightly silvered with gray, 
just enough to harmonize freely with his rich, ruddy complexion, a 
httle bronzed, and to give perfect dignity to the expression of his 
grand and massive features. His manner was grave, but frank and 
cordial. He wore a simple undress military suit, without badge or 
ornament of any kind, and there was nothing in his surroundings to 
indicate high military rank. 

" I rose to take my leave, when he asked me to resume my seat, 
remarking that he wished to talk with me about the condition of the 
country, and the terrible storm which was so soon to burst upon it in 
all its fury. He said he desired to impress me with the 
gravity and danger of our situation, and the imperative necessity for 
immediate and thorough preparation for defense. Growing warm, 
and earnest, he said, 'I fear our people do not yet realize the mag- 
nitude of the struggle they have entered upon, nor its probable dura- 
tion, and the sacrifice it will impose upon them. The United States 
Government,' he said, 'is one of the most powerful upon earth. I 
know the people and the government we have to contend with. In 
a Httle while they will be even more united than we are. Their 
resources are almost without Hmit. They have a thoroughly organ- 
ized government, commanding the respect and, to some extent, the 
fears of the world. Their army is complete in all its details and 
appointments, and it will be commanded by the foremost soldier of 



3o8 



Great Confederate Leaders 



the country, General Scott, whose devotion to the Union cause is 
attested by his drawing his sword against his native state. They 
have also a navy that in a httle while will blockade our ports and cut 
us off from all the world. They have nearly all the workshops and 
skilled artisans of the country, and will draw upon the resources of 
other nations to supply any deficiency they may feel. And above 
all, we shall have to fight the prejudices of the world, because of the 




GENERAL ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON 
A fii.e example of Southern chivalry. 

existence of slavery in our country. Our enemies will have the ear 
of other powers, while we cannot be heard, and they will be shrewd 
enough to make the war appear to be merely a struggle on our part 
for the maintenance of slavery; and we shall thus be without sym- 
pathy, and most certainly without material aid from other powers. 
" 'To meet all this we have a government to form, an army 
to raise, organize, and equip, as best we may. We are without a 



Great Confederate Leaders 3^9 

treasury, and without credit. We have no ships, few arms, and few 
manufacturers. Our people are brave and enthusiastic, and will be 
united in defense of a just cause. I believe we can succeed in 
estabHshing our independence, if the people can be made to com- 
prehend at the outset that to do so they must endure a longer war 
and far greater privations than our fathers did in the Revolution of 
1776. We will not succeed until the financial power of the North is 
completely broken, and this can occur only at the end of a long and 
bloody war. Many of our people think it will soon be over, that 
perhaps a single campaign and one great battle will end it. This 
is a fatal error, and must be corrected, or we are doomed. Above 
all, Virginians must prepare for the worst. Our country is of wide 
extent and great natural resources, but the conflict will be mainly in 
Virginia. She will become the Flanders of America before this war 
is over, and her people must be prepared for this. If they resolve at 
once to dedicate their lives and all they possess to the cause of con- 
stitutional government and Southern independence, and to suffer 
without yieldmg as no other people have been called upon to suffer 
in modern times, we shall, with the blessing of God, succeed in the 
end; but when it will all end no man can foretell. I wish I could 
talk to every man, woman, and child in the state now, and impress 
them with these views.' 

"The prophetic forecast of General Lee became widely known, 
and as subsequent events verified his judgment, it aided materially 
in giving him that control over the public mind of the South that 
enabled him often by a simple expression of his wishes to produce 
larger supplies and aid for his army than the most stringent acts of 
Congress and merciless impressment orders could obtain. The 
people came to regard him as the only man who could possibly 
carry us through the struggle successfully. The love of his troops 
for him knew no bounds, because they had implicit faith in his 
ability, and knew he was a sympathizing friend in all their trials. 

"The great simplicity of his habits was another ground of popu- 
larity. He fared no better than his troops. Their rough, scant 
rations were his as well. There were times when for weeks our 
army had nothing but bread and meat to live on, and not enough of 
that. When the two armies were on the opposite banks of the 
Rappahannock, in the winter of i863-'64, meat was sometimes very 
scarce in ours. Even the usual half-pound per diem ration could 



3IO Great Confederate Leaders 

not always be issued. During one of these periods of scarcity, on a 
very stormy day, several corps and division generals were at head- 
quarters, and were waiting for the rain to abate before riding to 
their camps, when General Lee's negro cook announced dinner. 
The General invited his visitors to dine with him. On repairing to 
the table a tray of hot corn-bread, a boiled head of cabbage sea- 
soned with a very small piece of bacon, and a bucket of water con- 
stituted the repast. The piece of meat was so small that all politely 
declined taking any, expressing themselves as 'very fond of boiled 
cabbage and corn-bread,' on which they dined. Of course, the 
General was too polite to eat meat in the presence of guests who had 
declined it. But later in the afternoon, when they had all gone, 
feeling very hungry, he called his servant and asked him to bring him 
a piece of bread and meat. The darkey looked perplexed and 
embarrassed, and after scratching his head some time said in a 
deprecating tone: ' Good laws, Marse Robert, dat meat what I sot 
before you at dinner warn't ours. I jest borrowed dat piece of 
middlin' from one of de couriers to season de cabbage in de pot, and 
seein' as you was gwine to have company at dinner, I put on de 
dish wid de cabbage for looks. But when I seed you an' none of 
de genelmen toched it I 'eluded you all knowed it was borrowed, 
and so after dinner I sent it back to de boy what it belong to. I's 
mighty sorry, Marse Robert, I didn't know you wanted some, for 
den I'd tuck a piece off'n it anyhow 'fore I sent it home.' " 

In the latter part of 1861, General Lee was sent to the coast of 
South Carolina, where he planned the defenses which so long proved 
impregnable to all attacks of the Union forces, and which were held 
until the northward march of Sherman's army in 1865 compelled the 
evacuation of Charleston. Lee then returned to Virginia, and in 
June, 1862, he took command of the Confederate forces defending 
Richmond. On June 26th, he advanced on McClellan at Mechanics- 
ville and Gaines's Mill, and then began that long and terrible series 
of battles between his forces and the Army of the Potomac which so 
splendidly displayed his magnificent abilities as a commander. In 
offensive warfare he was brilliant and in defensive warfare he 
was almost invincible. He defeated McClellan on the Peninsula, 
Pope at Manassas, Burnside at Fredericksburg, and Hooker at 
Chancellorsville. Not until Grant took command in 1864 was a 
general found who could successfully cope with Leej and even 



Great Confederate Leaders 



311 



Grant accomplished Lee's final defeat not so much by superior 
generalship as by steadily taking advantage of the superior means 
at his command. 

After the great conflict at Gettysburg, in July, 1863, the vast 
resources of the North, so far above those of the South, began to tell 
severely against the Confederacy. It became almost impossible to 
recruit the Southern armies, or properly to supply the men who were 




GENERAL LEE'S INVASION OF THE NORTH 

in the field. Thenceforward Lee's operations were confined to the 
defense of Virginia; and it is hard to overrate the masterly abihty 
with which this was done, under almost insuperable difficulties and 
discouragements. It was love and devotion to their commander 
which held together the armies of the Confederacy; and this, coupled 
with their confidence in his skill, long made his ragged and half- 



312 Great Confederate Leaders 

starved soldiers more than a match for the superior armies of 
McClellan and Grant. General Grant perceived this, and saw that 
it was really a question of endurance, — that the Confederacy could 
be overcome only when the resources of the South were so far 
exhausted that the war could no longer be carried on; and it was 
with this idea in his mind that he took command of the Union armies 
in 1864. 

The battle of the Wilderness, on May 5th, was the beginning of 
the end. Spottsylvania followed, and then Cold Harbor, where the 
frightful losses of the Union armies gave terrible proof of Lee's 
ability to take swift advantage of the least mistake of his antagonist. 
Then came the siege of Petersburg, and after a spring and summer 
of persistent fighting, Lee still held the Union armies at bay. But as 
Grant had foreseen, the struggle had told heavily upon his resources; 
and when the triumphant march of Sherman through Georgia 
exposed the hopelessly exhausted condition of the South, the end of 
the struggle was seen to be near at hand. 

The deprivation and poverty in Virginia in the last year of the 
war were extreme. The railroad communications of Richmond 
being often destroyed by the Union cavalry, it was impossible to keep 
the city supplied, and many of the people were on the verge of 
starvation. Pea soup and bread were the food of large numbers. 
Confederate money had so depreciated that it was often said that it 
took a basketful to go to market. A barrel of flour cost several 
hundred dollars. Boots were four or five hundred dollars a pair. 

Still Lee held out, and in the spring of 1865 maintained with 
persistent skill and courage the almost hopeless defense of Richmond; 
but his army was melting away; it was impossible to supply it even 
with food; the men themselves saw that further conflict was a useless 
'sacrifice, and the result which came at Appomattox Court House on 
April 9, 1865, was inevitable. 

The universal aff"ection and respect which the people of the 
South felt for General Lee was, if possible, increased after the close 
of the war. The confiscation of his property had rendered him 
homeless. The people of Virginia off"ered him homes almost without 
number, and relatives also who lived in England were desirous that 
he should take up his abode there; but General Lee would not con- 
sent to be separated from the country he loved. He was deeply 
attached to the people of the South, as they to him; and of the many 



Great Confederate Leaders 3^3 

homes offered him, he chose one in Powhatan County, a small and 
simple country place, where he gathered his wife and children 
around him, expecting to lead a retired and quiet life. He was also 
offered many positions, in which he would receive a liberal salary 
for little or no labor; but these his pride would not permit him to 
accept. Finally a proposition was made by the trustees of Wash- 
ington University that he should become president of that institution. 
This offer, much to the gratification of his friends, he concluded to 
accept, beheving, as he said, that he could be of influence and use in 
that position. This expectation was not a mistaken one. The Uni- 
versity quickly became one of the most popular educational institu- 
tions of the South, which no doubt was largely in consequence of the 
fact that he was at the head of it. The number of students increased 
ten-fold within a comparatively short time after General Lee became 
its president. His wisdom and skill in managing the students of the 
University was remarkable. His appeal to the higher sentiments 
of the young men seemed never to fail of a response. They were 
ashamed to do anything less than their best when feeling that Gen- 
eral Lee's eye was upon them. He was accustomed to remind them 
on entering the college of the loving solicitude with which their 
course would be watched by their mothers; and this appeal to their 
highest feelings seldom failed to have great effect upon their conduct 
and character. 

Bitterness or resentment seemed to have no place in General 
Lee's nature. When the fate of war went against him, he accepted 
its result in good faith, and thenceforward did his best to restore 
good feeling between the North and the South. Even toward men 
who exhibited the most intense bitterness against him he seemed 
to have no other feeling than kindness and good-will. This was the 
case even with those who sought to have him tried and punished for 
treason. During the war it was noticeable that he never spoke of 
the Union soldiers as "Yankees," the common expression in the 
Southern army. They were always mentioned as "Federals," or 
"the enemy." He regretted and condemned the harsh and bitter 
language which characterized the Southern newspapers. "Is it any 
wonder, " he said, "that Northern journals should retort as they do, 
when those in the South employ such language against them .?" 

A touching story, illustrating this noble trait of General Lee's 
character, was told years after the war by a Union veteran who was 



314 



Great Confederate Leaders 



viewing the great panorama, "The Battle of Gettysburg. " He said, 
" I was at the battle of Gettysburg myself. I had been a most bitter 
anti-South man, and fought and cursed the Confederates desperately. 
I could see nothing good in any of them. The last day of the fight I 
was badly wounded. A ball shattered my left leg. I lay on the 
ground not far from Cemetery Ridge, and as General Lee ordered 
his retreat, he 
and his officers 
rode near me. 
As they came 
along I recog- 
nized him, and, 
though faint 



from exposure 
and loss of 
blood, I raised 
up my hands, 
looked Lee in 
the face, and 
shouted as loud 
as I could, 
'Hurrah for the 
Union !' The 
general h ea rd 
me, looked, 
stopped his 
horse, dis- 
mounted, and 
came toward 
me. I confess 
that I at first 
thought he 
meant to kill 
me. But as 

he came up he looked down at me with such a sad expression upon 
his face that all fear left me, and I wondered what he was about. 
He extended his hand to me, and grasping mine firmly and look- 
ing right into my eyes, said, 'My son, I hope you will soon be well.' 
" If I live a thousand years I shall never forget the expression on 




GENERAL " STONEV^ALL" JACKSON 

The soldier whose religious zeal was as constant and unflinching 

as his personal courage. 



Great Confederate Leaders 3^5 

General Lee's face. There he was, defeated, retiring from a field 
that had cost him and his cause almost their last hope, and yet he 
stopped to say words like those to a wounded soldier of the opposi- 
tion who had taunted him as he passed by! As soon as the general 
had left me I cried myself to sleep there upon the bloody ground. " 

The value of General Lee's example in restoring good feehng 
between the North and South can hardly be overestimated. He was 
so universally looked up to by the Southern people that his opinions 
and example could not fail to have the greatest effect. It is no small 
part of his title to fame that his great influence should have been 
used as it was toward reuniting the country after the war, rather 
than in perpetuating strife and hatred. 

General Lee's domestic life was an almost ideal one. Dunng 
his last years, his wife was an invalid, suffering from rheumatic gout, 
and his devotion to her was unfailing. Her health rendered it neces- 
sary for her to travel to the medicinal springs in different parts of 
Virginia, and he used often to precede her on the journey, in order 
to have everything in readiness on her arrival. He contrived an 
apparatus whereby she could be lowered into the baths in her chair 
in order to avoid ascending and descending the steps. His love for 
his children manifested itself in a tender and delicate courtesy which 
was beautiful to see, and which was repaid on their part by the 
strongest attachment. 

General Lee died at Lexington, Virginia, October 12, 1870. 
After his death the name of the college over which he had presided 
was changed, in his honor, to "Washington and Lee University," 
and stands a worthy monument of the great soldier, whose noble 
qualities were shown as conspicuously in peace as in war. The 
issues which divided our country into hostile sections have happily 
passed away; and North and South can join in cherishing his mem- 
ory and doing honor to his spotless fame. 

After General Lee himself, the man who won the highest meed 
of admiration from the South and in a large mt^asure from the 
North, was his able lieutenant, Stonewall Jackson. There were 
many who had higher commands. Throughout his career Jackson 
was under the direct orders of his great general. He never com- 
manded a large army of his own. But such was the brilHancy of his 
exploits, such the high regard felt for his character, that to-day, 
forty years after the war, when time has had full opportunity to 



3i6 Great Confederate Leaders 

remove all misconceptions and dispel all false fame, the name of 
Thomas J. Jackson stands in higher estimation than ever, and in 
speaking of the Southern heroes of the war his name always comes 
in direct Hne after that of his great commander Robert E. Lee. 

This high standing in public esteem was not won by Jackson 
through mihtary valor alone. It is a testimonial to his whole char- 
acter, and especially to his position as an ardent and consistent 
Christian; a man of prayer while a man of battle; the Cromwell of 
the Civil War, while devoid of the ambition and hypocrisy of the 
great Puritan. Jackson was humble throughout, innately and 
deeply devout, a man whose only ambition was to do his duty, who 
was almost fanatical in his rehgious zeal, and withal was one of the 
most brilliant soldiers which the great war produced. A singular 
character he was, one of those men who stand out from the common 
mass and force themselves upon the public attention by sheer orig- 
inality. But all the elements of Jackson's originality were of a high 
and noble kind and he made himself not only admired but loved. 

He was a Virginian hke Lee, born at Clarksburg in 1824, so 
that he was still a young man at the outbreak of the war. He 
became a student at West Point, and took part in the Mexican War, 
in which he won honors by his gallantry. In 1851 ill health caused 
him to resign from the army, and he was soon after made Pro- 
fessor of Natural Science and Artillery Tactics in the Military Insti- 
tute at Lexington, Virginia. 

His pecuHarities of character were very manifest at the Institute 
and many stories are told of them. He was "Old Jack" to the 
students, who were more ready to perceive his eccentricities than 
his merits. No man could have been more earnestly conscientious. 
On one occasion he had ordered a student to his seat in class for a 
mistake in recitation. Afterward he discovered that the student was 
correct and the text book was at fault. Justice demanded that the 
error should be rectified, but as it was a winter night, with the ground 
covered with snow and sleet, most men would have let justice wait 
till the next day. Not so Jackson. He set out at once on a long 
walk through the inclement weather to apologize to the boy he had 
wrongly punished. His conscience would not let him rest until he 
had sought the student's room and humbly acknowledged his fault. 

Jackson was above all things a religious man. At all times and 
places, in every act of his life, religion was his first thought. A friend 



Great Confederate Leaders 317 

was once conversing with him about the difficulty of the Scripture 
injunction, "Pray without ceasing," and Jackson insisted that we 
could so accustom ourselves to it that it could be easily obeyed. 
"When we take our meals, there is grace. When I take a drink of 
water I always pause, as my palate receives the refreshment, to lift 
up my heart in thanks to God for the water of life. Whenever I drop 
a letter in the box at the post-office, I send a petition along with it for 
God's blessing upon its mission and upon the person to whom it is 
sent. When I break the seal of a letter just received, I stop to pray 
to God that he may prepare me for its contents and make it a messen- 
ger of good. When I go to my class-room and await the arrange- 
ment of the cadets in their places, that is my time to intercede with 
God for them. And so with every other familiar act of the day." 

"But," said his friend, "do you not often forget these seasons 
coming so frequently .?" 

"No," said he; "I have made the practice habitual, and I can 
no more forget it than forget to drink when I am thirsty." 

Upon the secession of Virginia, Jackson was among the first to 
answer the call to arms, and wrote to Governor Letcher, offering to 
serve in any position to which he might be assigned. The Governor 
immediately commissioned him a colonel of Virginia volunteers. 
He was placed in command of the troops at Harper's Ferry, and 
upon the formation of the Army of the Shenandoah he was placed 
in charge of the famous "Stonewall Brigade," with which his name 
was thenceforth identified. That singular appellation of a body of 
troops originated in this wise: — 

In the early part of the battle of Bull Run the Confederates had 
decidedly the worst of it. Bartow's and Bee's brigades were terribly 
cut up and driven from the field for a time, and all seemed lost, when 
Jackson suddenly appeared upon the scene with his splendid brigade. 
With magical rapidity he took in the situation, and formed his lines 
to resist the advance of the enemy. Bee and Bartow had succeeded 
in rallying fragments of their brigades. To reassure his soldiers. 
Bee addressed them briefly, and, pointing to Jackson's men as a 
worthy example of courage and coolness, he exclaimed, "Look at 
those Virginians! They stand like a stone wall." The next day 
Bee's comphment was repeated all over the camp, and the name 
stuck to the brigade and its commander ever after. 

One of Jackson's pecuHarities was a passion for exact justice. 



3i8 Great Confederate Leaders 

He would not permit his rank to give him the smallest advantage 
over the common soldiers of his command. When at Bull Run he 
made the celebrated charge which turned the fortunes of the day, he 
raised his left hand above his head to encourage the troops, and 
while in this position a ball struck a finger, broke it, and carried off a 
piece of the bone. He remained upon the field, wounded as he was, 
till the fight was over, and then wanted to take part in the pursuit, 
but was peremptorily ordered back to the hospital by the general 
commanding. The chief surgeon was busily engaged with the 
wounded, but left them and asked Jackson if he was seriously hurt. 
"No," he answered, "not half as badly as many here, and I will 
wait." And he forthwith sat down on the bank of a little stream 
near by, and positively declined any assistance until "his turn came." 

In October, 1861, Jackson was commissioned a major-general, 
and sent to take command in the Shenandoah Valley. In the course 
of the winter he drove the Federal troops from the district, and early 
in the following March was there when Banks was sent to the Valley, 
Jackson fell back before Banks some forty miles, then suddenly 
turned, and, with only thirty-five hundred men, attacked him so 
fiercely that he retreated with all his troops. His campaign in April, 
1862, when he whipped Milroy, Banks, Shields, and Fremont, one 
after another, and then suddenly descended upon McClellan at 
Gaines's Mill, when the Union generals thought he was still in the 
Valley, constitutes one of the most brilliant chapters in modern war- 
fare, and from that time forward he ranked with the most popular 
heroes of the war, admired for his splendid soldiership in North as 
well as South. He took part in the operations against McClellan, 
and in July he was again detached and sent to Gordonsville to look 
after his old enemies in the Valley, who were gathering under Pope. 
On August 9th he crossed the Rapidan and struck Banks another 
crushing blow at Cedar Run.- On August 25th he passed around 
Pope's right flank and forced him to let go his hold upon the Rappa- 
hannock. By stubborn fighting he kept him on the ground until 
Longstreet could get up, and admirably aided to rout Pope at the 
second battle of Bull Run, in August, 1862. Washington was 
threatened by these movements and McClellan was ordered north, 
the siege of Richmond thus being raised. 

Two weeks later, in the beginning of the Maryland campaign, 
Jackson invested and captured Harper's Ferry, taking eleven 



Great Confederate Leaders 



319 



thousand prisoners, many stands of arms, and seventy-two guns, 
and by a terrible night march reached Sharpsburg on September i6th. 
The next morning he commanded the left wing of the Confederate 
army, repulsing with his thin line the corps of Hooker, Mansfield, 
and Sumner, which were in succession hurled against him. xA.t Fred- 




THE FATAL WOUNDING OF "STONEWALL" JACKSON 
When this leader fell, the whole South wept; not only for his courage but for his never- 
failing kindness and tenderness was this hero loved and revered. 

ericksburg, December 13, 1862, Jackson commanded the Confed- 
erate right wing, and in May, 1863, during the battle of Chancellors- 
ville, he made a brilhant and famous flank movement which resulted 
in Hooker's disastrous defeat. But in this battle Jackson unfor- 
tunately received a wound in the arm from his own men. The arm 
was amputated, and soon after pneumonia set in, of which he died. 



320 Great Confederate Leaders 

His death was a loss to the cause of the South which more than 
cancelled the gain of the great victory. Lee said sadly, on learning 
of his wound: "He is better off than I am. He has lost his left 
arm, but I have lost my right. " 

In person Jackson is described by an intimate friend as "a tall 
man, six feet high, angular, strong, with large feet and hands." 
He rather strode along than walked. There was something firm 
and decided even in his gait. His eyes were dark blue, large, and 
piercing. He looked straight at you, and through you almost, as he 
talked. He spoke in terse, short sentences, always to the point. 
There was never any circumlocution about what he had to say. 
His hair was inclined to auburn. His beard was brown. He was as 
gentle and kind as a woman to those he loved. There was some- 
times a softness and tenderness about him that was very striking. 

Jackson was a great hero and favorite throughout the South 
among both soldiers and people. They had the most implicit faith 
in his abihties, and the greatest love and reverence for his character. 
Their sentiments were well expressed in the prayer of old "Father 
Hubert," of Hays' Louisiana Brigade, who, in his prayer at the 
unveihng of the Jackson monument in New Orleans, said as his 
chmax: "And Thou knowest, O Lord! that when Thou didst decide 
that the Confederacy should not succeed. Thou hadst first to remove 
Thy servant, Stonewall Jackson." 

While we lack space to describe all the able and heroic Southern 
leaders in the Civil War, there are two of especial brilHancy, the 
resemblance of whose fate to that of Jackson calls for some com- 
ment on their careers. These are Albert Sidney Johnston and 
James E. B. Stuart, both of whom fell in battle after winning fame 
by their soldierly daring and abihty. To these then we shall con- 
fine what space remains. 

Regarding the first named of these, it may truly be said that 
there was no more skilful soldier in the American service, and his 
early fall was a most serious disaster to the Confederate cause. 
Born in Kentucky in 1803, and graduating at West Point in 1826, 
Albert Sidney Johnston served for eight years in the national army, 
then in 1834 made Texas his home, and in 1836 enlisted in Houston's 
patriot army as a private soldier. But a man of his abihty could not 
stay long in the ranks. He rose so rapidly that in two years he was 
commander-in-chief of the Texan army and was acting as Secretary 



Great Confederate Leaders 321 

of War of the Texan Republic. He took part in the Mexican War 
as colonel of a Texas regiment, became a major in the United States 
army in 1849, and in 1857 conducted the expedition to Utah to 
bring the Mormons to order. In this he showed such military skill 
that he was raised to the brevet rank of brigadier general. He 
resigned from the army in May, 1861, and joined the Confederate 
cause, with which he was in strong sympathy. 

Johnston's career in this cause was a short but striking one. 
Appointed to the command of the Confederate forces in Kentucky 
and Tennessee, he occupied a fortified position at Bowling Green 
in the autumn of 1861. This position was made untenable by the 
loss of Fort Donelson in the following February, and Johnston was 
forced to make a hasty backward movement into Tennessee, pursued 
by much superior forces. The retreat, which was attended with 
the loss of Nashville and other disasters, continued for six weeks, 
at the end of which time his reduced force made connection with 
the army under General Beauregard at Corinth. Here the retro- 
grade movement ended and the forces increased until Johnston 
found himself at the head of an army fifty thousand strong. 

Retreat was no longer the word. Advance was the order of the 
day. A strong Federal army, under General Grant, had gathered at 
Shiloh, on the Tennessee river, not many miles to the north. Johns- 
ton determined to fall upon this force and, if possible, annihilate it 
before the arrival of General Buell, who was approaching with strong 
reinforcements. He himself expected to be reinforced by thirty 
thousand men under Generals VanDorn and Price, but victory 
seemed to him to depend upon celerity, and he resolved to strike 
Grant before Buell could reach him. 

A heavy rainstorm was falHng when the advancing Confed- 
erates drew near to their enemies. They had approached within 
four miles of Grant's camp without being perceived. That night a 
council of war was held, at which the question of waiting for Van- 
Dorn and Price was discussed. At Johnston's suggestion it was 
resolved to advance and strike the enemy before the dawn. Pointing 
toward the Union camp, as the conference broke up, Beauregard 
said : " Gentlemen, we sleep in the enemy's camp to-morrow night. " 

Dawn had not broken when the attack began. It was a com- 
plete surprise. The Federals were sleeping in fancied security, not 
dreaming that there was a foeman within many miles. They were 



322 Great Confederate Leaders 

awakened by the sudden sound of rattling rifles and bursting bombs. 
The Federals were hurled back, regiment rolled upon regiment, 
corps upon corps, fighting with the fierceness of despair, yet going 
backward, step by step. Hour after hour the victorious Confed- 
erates advanced with triumphant cheers, driving their foes before 
them for several miles and forcing them, as night approached, into a 
contracted space on the banks of the Tennessee. All so far was well, 
but fate was preparing a sad disaster for the victors. In the midst 
of its successful onset the Confederate army met with a terrible loss. 
Their commander, General Johnston, while leading them gallantly 
onward and recklessly exposing himself to danger, was struck by a 
bullet which cut an artery of his leg. The wound was mortal, and 
ten minutes after he was lifted from his horse he died. 

Thus, in the moment of victory, died one of the bravest and 
most accomplished ofl&cers in the Confederate army. Horace 
Greeley, in his "American Conflict," gives him the credit of being 
"probably the ablest commander at any time engaged in the rebel 
service." Certainly his fall at that critical moment was a serious 
blow to the victorious army. While still possessed of able leaders, 
the loss of his stalwart form and cheering voice must have had a 
depressing eff'ect upon those who missed him from the field; and 
when, the next morning, the Confederates found before them a 
fresh and powerful army, that of Buell, which had come up and 
crossed the river in the night, they felt themselves robbed of the 
fruits of the brilliant victory they had won. Had Johnston still 
remained at their head another day of victory might perhaps have 
been theirs. But they had lost their able leader and the fruits of 
their great day of victory were wrested from them by the great force 
of fresh foes. Worn out by their day and night of desperate struggle 
with one army, they woke to find themselves facing a new one of 
equal strength, while the brilliant captain yesterday at their head 
had gone to join the silent host of the dead. What result but one 
could come in circumstances like these ? The prize they had won 
at the cost of toil and blood was torn from their grasp. 

Coming now to the cavalry branch of the Confederate army, 
that branch of soldiery which is famous in all history for daring 
movements, gallant exploits and brilliant achievements, we find 
ourselves in the presence of a score of brilliant leaders, each with a 
story enlivened with incidents that have all the glamour of romance. 



Great Confederate Leaders 



d>^3 



There was the dashing Mosby, the bold guerrilla of the service, the 
hornet whose sting had the sharpness of that of the famous Marion. 
There was the intrepid Forrest, whose career was one of daring, 
venture and brilliant success. There was the audacious Morgan, 
who carried the war into the heart of the North, sweeping like a 
besom of destruction through Ohio and Indiana. There was Joe 
Wheeler, great 
of soul while 
small of body, 
who led his 
men to glory in 
many a stirring 
fight. There 
were various 
others of dash 
and daring, but 
chief among 
them all was 
"Jeb" Stuart, 
Lee's right 
hand in the 
cavalry as 
Jackson was in 
the i n f a n t ry 
service, and 
worthy a name 
among the fa- 
mous cavalry 
captains of his- 
tory. We speak 
of him here as 
one of those 
who died for 
h i s cause as 
well as fought 

for it, but he did not fall before he had won a noble meed of fame. 
James Ewell Brown Stuart was the grandson of an officer of the 
Revolution and the son of an officer of the War of 1812. He inher- 
ited the spirit of a soldier, studied the military art at West Point, and 




GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 

First Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate forces 

at Richmond. 



324 Great Confederate Leaders 

saw much service in Indian warfare. When Lee was sent to put 
down the John Brown raid, Stuart went with him as aide. And 
when Virginia seceded he resigned from the Federal army to take 
up arms in the service of his native state. 

Appointed colonel of cavalry in July, 1861, he began that bril- 
liant career which never declined until his death in battle. To ride 
round the Federal Army of the Potomac and leave dismay and havoc 
in his track was a common exploit in his history. In the first battle of 
the war, when Johnston marched from before Patterson to the field of 
Bull Run, it was Stuart and his horsemen who screened this move- 
ment. Then, hastening to the field of battle, he lent such able help to 
the forces in the field as to bring him the rank of brigadier-general. 

During the McClellan campaign in the Peninsula and before 
Richmond, Stuart was one of the most active of Lee's lieutenants. 
His first famous exploit was that of June 12-15, 1862, when, at the 
head of 1200 of his gallant horsemen, and with a handful of flying 
artillery, he cut loose from all communication, made a grand sweep 
round the Army of the Potomac, destroyed a large quantity of army 
stores, and returned at leisure across the Chickahominy and up the 
James, with McClellan's army on one hand and the Union gunboats 
on the other. One man only was lost from his troops in this brilliant 
adventure and his prisoners were many, while the information he 
brought Lee was the prelude to the great seven days' fight, in which 
Stuart played an active part. For these splendid services he was 
promoted to the high grade of major-general, though not yet thirty 
years old. 

This famous raid was of the type of many of Stuart's later 
exploits. In the great Second Bull Run battle, in which Jackson 
and Lee so absolutely crushed the over-confident Pope, Stuart and 
his cavalry rendered inestimable service. Early in the fight he 
made a daring ride round Pope's rear, in a heavy rain storm, setting 
fire to the trains at Catlett's Station, capturing Pope's despatch book 
and baggage, an<i making prisoners of several officers of his staff. 
This was but an opening of the door. In a few days more the dash- 
ing Stuart was through it again, far in the rear of Pope's powerful 
army, and with the supply post at Manassas Junction in his hands. 
Here were army stores in great profusion and a large quantity of 
public property, all of which went up in smoke and flame, lighting 
Stuart and his men on their triumphant return. Once more he had 
struck a blow which contributed greatly to Lee's success. 



Great Confederate Leaders 325 

As Lee marched through Maryland, Stuart and his gallant band 
rode in advance of Jackson's corps, blazing the way for the army that 
followed. The battle of Antietam fought, and Lee and McClellan 
facing each other with the Potomac between them, the bold cavalry 
leader resolved to astonish the enemy by a new example of Confed- 
erate daring. At the head of 1 800 picked men he crossed the river 
at Williamsport and dashed northward through Maryland and into 
Pennsylvania, where he reached Chambersburg and swept away or 
destroyed a large amount of property. The entire cavalry force of 
McClellan's army pursued him, but on he swept, leaving them trail- 
ing wearily in his rear, and recrossed the Potomac below McClellan's 
left. Thus for the fourth time he had ridden unharmed round the 
rear of an army, leaving ruin and dismay in his track. 

In the later army movements Stuart lost none of his skill and 
activity. Early in 1863 he made a notable raid on Dumfries, in 
which, by sending false telegrams to Washington, he learned what 
movements the Union forces had in view, and hastened back to Lee 
with the welcome news which had so kindly been sent him. In the 
great battle of Chancellorsville, which soon followed, Stuart was 
with Stonewall Jackson in his famous flank movement, and when 
that famous leader fell Stuart took command, led the corps out of 
the critical position it had fallen into during the night, drove 
Hooker's forces from his front and brought the victors back in touch 
with the army they had left. 

Once again, on the far march to Gettysburg, Stuart repeated 
his familiar movement. During the long advance he guarded with 
his cavalry the flanks of the marching columns, fighting at various 
points. On reaching the Potomac Lee permitted him to try again 
his familiar tactics, and he crossed the river between the Federal 
army and Washington and swept swiftly northward in its rear. So 
wide was the detour that the second day's battle at Gettysburg was 
ended before he was able to reach Lee's army, and the utmost he 
could do was to take part in the close of the mighty struggle and to 
cover the rear of the withdrawing columns by guarding the moun- 
tain gaps. 

Much might be said of Stuart's subsequent services and his 
frequent brushes with the Federal cavalry, but we must hasten to 
the final event in his brilliant career. It came in May, 1864, when 
Grant and his vast army had entered the Wilderness for the struggle 



326 Great Confederate Leaders 

of giants which then began. To clear the way for his advance, 
Grant sent Sheridan at the head of 12,000 cavahy, to cut Lee's com- 
munications and attack Richmond. On swept this powerful force, 
crossing the Po, the Ta, and the North Anna Rivers, and striking 
the Virginia Central Railroad at Beaver Dam Station on May 9th. 
Here he tore up ten miles of track and destroyed much property. 
While doing this he was attacked in flank and rear by Stuart, who 
had followed at top speed from the North Anna with such forces as 
he could gather. He was too weak in men to make much impres- 
sion on Sheridan's cavalry host, and the latter continued his advance 
upon Richmond, hoping to capture its defences by a bold dash. 

On reaching Yellow Tavern, a few miles north of Richmond, 
he found Stuart in his front. That gallant leader had made a swift 
circuitous march, concentrated all the cavalry he could collect, and 
was prepared to fight for the capital of the Confederacy to the bitter 
end. The battle that ensued was one of the fiercest cavalry engage- 
ments of the war. Stuart dashed upon his foes with all his old vim 
and boldness, but in the midst of the hotly contested fight a bullet 
struck him low. He fell with a mortal wound, and his men, dis- 
heartened by his fall, gave way before the overpowering force of their 
foes. Sheridan pushed on to the defences of Richmond and sought 
to take them by storm, but found them gallantly defended and was 
baffled in the attempt. Stuart was carried to Richmond, where he 
quickly died. 

Thus on the field of battle passed away the ablest cavalry com- 
mander of the war, Sheridan alone contesting the palm with him. 
The novelty, boldness, and celerity of his movements, their dash 
and brilliancy, and the success which attended them till the final 
moment of his career, invested him with a halo of romance which 
only such gallantry could win, and gave him the claim to be regarded 
as the Rupert of the South. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

JEFFERSON DAVIS AND THE GOVERN- 
MENT OF THE CONFEDERACY 

The Confederate civil leaders — A description of Jefferson Davis — His army career — 
In Congress — Chosen President of the Confederacy — His able efforts — His mili- 
tary ability — Presidential strategy — Jackson in the Valley — Davis interviewed 

after the War Was he right or wrong ? — Vice-President Stephens described — 

His early career — His public service — The Confederate Cabinet — Toombs and 
Benjamin — ^Work of the Naval Department — The Merrimac and the Monitor — 
The fate of the Iron-clads — The work of the Alabama. 

WE have described some of the most prominent of the great 
war leaders of the Southern Confederacy. It is incum- 
bent upon us to do the same for the great political leaders, 
and especially the two able men who stood at the head of the Con- 
federate government, Jefferson Davis, its skilled and efficient Presi- 
dent, and Alexander H. Stephens, its highly capable Vice-President. 
Men of great worth and fine ability were they both, and though 
fate decided against them in the mighty contest which they con- 
trolled, their memories will long be held in honor in the South and 
in respect in North and South alike. The day in which the names 
of these men could be covered with contumely in the North has long 
since passed away, with the intense sentiment of hostility which 
gave it birth. Their true worth and capacity for affairs has long 
since been weighed and measured, and they have taken their just 
place among the statesmen of the country as men to whose hands 
the civil affairs of the Confederacy were wisely entrusted and by 
whom they were vigorously and capably administered. 

What is said here refers with special force to Jefferson Davis, 
whose position as President gave him the immediate control of 
affairs. We cannot better introduce him than in the description of 
an English writer, who saw him at Richmond during the Civil War: 

327 



328 Government of the Confederacy 

"Perhaps there is no individual 'down South' more universally 
popular than the President of the Confederate States. In appear- 
ance he is tall, sHm, prim, and smooth — rather precise, but gentle- 
manly in manner — and exhibits a stiff military carriage, which to a 
stranger savors of austerity. Naturally, however, his temper is 
genial, and he quickly wins upon those with whom he comes in con- 
tact. His private hfe is irreproachable, and his social quahties 
endear him to all his personal friends. As a public speaker he is 
lucid, cogent and argumentative, while his voice is clear, firm and 
without the least approach to tremor. His features are prominent, 
his brow intellectual, and his entire person evinces a marked indi- 
viduality of character. His fine countenance is somewhat dis- 
figured by an injury received in one eye, so severe as to render 
it sightless. Few individuals have led a more stirring or eventful 
life." 

Born in Kentucky in 1808, the son of a planter who had served in 
the Revolutionary War, and who removed to Woodville, Mississippi, 
when his son was an infant, Jefferson Davis was sent to the West 
Point Military Academy on reaching suitable age, graduating 
in 1828. 

For seven years he remained attached to the military service, 
during which time he served as an infantry and staff officer on the 
north-west frontier in the Black Hawk War of 183 1-2, with such 
distinction that in March of the following year he was appointed 
to a first-lieutenancy of dragoons. A somewhat romantic attach- 
ment arose between himself and his prisoner, the famous Chief, 
Black Hawk, in which the latter forgot his animosity to the people of 
the United States in his admiration for the young lieutenant, and 
not until his death did the bond of amity become severed between 
the two brave men. 

After having served with honor in sundry expeditions during 
the frontier wars, Davis resigned his commission in 1835 and 
returned to Mississippi, where he married the daughter of General 
Taylor, and pursued the peaceful occupation of a planter. In 1843 
he emerged from his retirement and took an active part in politics, 
uniting himself with the Democratic party. 

Davis's Congressional career began in 1845, when he was 
elected a member of the House of Representatives, in whose debates 
he took a conspicuous part. Among the questions of interest which 



Government of the Confederacy 



329 



then arose was that of war with Mexico. In the discussion of this 
Davis maintained the Southern view, and in July, 1846, he resigned 
from the House to take a soldier's part in the war. A regiment of 
Mississippi volunteers had elected him as its colonel, and at its head 
he marched to the Rio Grande, where he joined the army of General 

Taylor. He 

was concerned 
in all the sub- 
sequent move- 
ments and en- 
gagements o f 
this army, play- 
ing a prominent 
part in the 
storming of 
Monterey and 
in the cele- 
brated battle of 
Buena Vista. 
Twice during 
that desperate 
conflict he 
saved the day 
by his coolness 
and b ra very, 
and for a long 
time maintain- 
ed his ground 
unsu pporte d 
a gai n St i m- 
mensely supe- 

■' _i \. PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS 

nor numbers. 

From portrait taken during war time. 

VVnerever t n e Jefferson Davis was equally great as a soldier of the highest dis- 

fire was hottest, tinction, a far-seeing statesman of dignity and power and a noble, 

tVi rl;ino-pr kind and generous gentleman, warmly devoted to duty ai he saw it. 

greatest, there the gallant soldier and the Mississippi Rifles 
were to be found. Although severely wounded in the early 
part of the action, he remained in the saddle until the fight was 
over, refusing to delegate his command to a subordinate officer. 




33^ Government of the Confederacy 

His coolness and gallantry were highly commended by the comman- 
der-in-chief in the official report of the engagement, and he bore off 
an important part of the honor of the day. 

On his return with his regiment to New Orleans, in July, 1847, 
President Polk sent him a commission of brigadier general of 
volunteers, but this honor was declined on Constitutional grounds, 
Davis maintaining that the right of nominating militia officers was 
reserved to the states, and that his appointment by the Federal 
Executive was a violation of State Rights. His remaining career up 
to i860 may be briefly dealt with. He was elected in 1847 ^'^ ^^^ 
United States Senate to fill a vacancy, and in 1850. was reelected for 
a full term, but resigned in 1851 to run for Governor of Mississippi. 
Defeated in this contest, though running largely ahead of his ticket, 
he remained in retirement until 1853, when President Pierce, for 
whom he had stumped his state, appointed him Secretary of War. 
The administration of this department by the new secretary 
rendered him highly popular with the army, and was conducted with 
singular energy and ability. Among many useful and public meas- 
ures, he was instrumental in effecting the introduction of the light 
infantry or rifle system of tactics, the manufacture of rifles and the 
use of the Minie ball, the importation of camels into the states, and 
the system of explorations in the western part of the American conti- 
nent, for geographical purposes, and in order to determine the most 
eligible route for a railroad to the Pacific. In 1857 he was reelected 
Senator from Mississippi for the term of six years, which distin- 
guished office he filled with honor until his resignation on the seces- 
sion of his state from the Union. 

From "The Civil War and the Constitution," by John W. 
Burgess, we quote the following appreciative estimate of Mr. Davis, 
as he appeared on the floor of the United States Senate: "Mr. 
Davis's rhetoric corresponded in character with his logic. It was 
pure, perspicuous, and rather terse. It must have been a great 
relief to the Senate, after listening to the ornate sentences, mixed 
metaphors, and far-fetched similes of most of the Southern members, 
to have Mr. Davis tell them briefly, plainly, and distinctly just what 
it was all about. As discussion and debate approach the point of 
action such personalities are indispensably necessary to formulate 
the needs for which men fight or die. His bearing and conduct were 
likewise in accord with the character of his thought and speech. 








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THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERACY. 
First page of the permanent Constitution of the Confederate States 
as reported by the committee. This is the handwriting of General Thomas 
R. B. Cobb, who was a member of the committee. Taken from the 
original which is in possession of Mr. A. L. Hull, Athens. Ga., and used 
liy permission. 



I 



Government of the Confederacy 33^ 

He was dignified, grave, almost severe, and decided even to impe- 
riousness. He was often impatient, and rather inclined to suspect 
those who differed with him in opinion of being influenced by wrong 
motives. But withal he was noble, kind, generous in his feeling, if 
not in his intellect, brave, self-sacrificing, and grandly devoted to 
duty as he understood it." In person, says Burgess, "Davis was 
tall, well-formed, erect, handsome, dignified and graceful. He bore 
all the marks of a well-born, well-bred, cultured gentleman." 

Such a man was well fitted by nature and experience to be 
President of the Confederate States Government, and when it came 
to be decided who among the Southern statesmen should hold this 
high office, the name of Mr. Davis stood far above all others. He was 
at once the leading representative of the doctrine of State Sovereignty, 
the ablest and clearest thinker among them all, and the man of most 
varied experience in public affairs, while his high ability as a 
soldier was likely to be of essential service to the new government. 
Mr. Toombs was the only other whose name was seriously consid- 
ered, and of the two Davis was far the calmer, more prudent and 
more judicious. The choice could not have been bettered, for no 
man in the South could have surpassed Mr. Davis in the capable 
work which he did as Executive of the Confederacy. 

It was a provisional government of which Davis was elected the 
head in February, 1861. But in November he was reelected 
President, for six years, of the Confederate States, and was inau- 
gurated February 22, 1862. Of his services during the years of the 
war little adverse criticism can be made. The situation in which he 
was placed was an eminently difficult one and it is doubtful if another 
man could have been found in the South to fill it with equal judgment 
and political acumen. All that could well be done in the aid of his 
cause was done by him, — the efforts to obtain European recognition 
and aid, the encouragement of blockade running, the fitting out of 
privateers, the setting of machinery in motion to supply the army 
with the much needed munitions of war, the building of iron-clads, — 
in a doz&n such directions he was actively employed. 

On taking his seat he found the country under his control 
largely deficient in military supplies. In the spring of 1861 he 
made a statement showing a great lack of ammunition and 
other materials, and set himself earnestly to work to provide 
for the army these absolute essentials to successful warfare 



33^ Government of the Confederacy 

Before 1861 was over powder mills were established in half a 
dozen of the States, eight arsenals and four depots were suppHed 
with machinery for the manufacture of arms and equipments, 
several chemical laboratories were in operation, foundries for the 
casting of artillery were established at Richmond, New Orleans and 
Nashville, cloth factories, tanneries, etc., were springing up, and the 
blockade runners were bringing in warlike material in great abun- 
dance. And to the end of the war the Government at Richmond 
succeeded in keeping its armies supplied with the munitions nec- 
essary for military operations. 

Such were some of the directions in which President Davis kept 
himself usefully occupied. It must be borne in mind that he was not 
alone a statesman of large experience but also a soldier of long train- 
ing and high distinction. As executive official of a Government 
whose history was war and to which peace was unknown this width 
of experience and wealth of powers were highly .essential. His 
ability as a soldier, indeed, was the most needful, for, while not 
personally in the field, he had to provide constantly for those under 
arms, to devise methods of supplying food, arms, clothing, and other 
necessities from an impoverished country, mostly destitute of manu- 
facturing facihties, for the struggling hosts in the field. And the 
armies themselves were under his constant supervision, to a far 
greater extent than were those of the North under that of President 
Lincoln. The latter had no training in war, and his meddling with 
the armies and their commanders did more mischief than good. 
President Davis, on the contrary, had been trained in the art of vv^ar, 
and had followed his academy training by strenuous experience on the 
battle field, and he knew very thoroughly what he was about. Few 
movements of importance were made without his advice and super- 
vision, and some of his suggestions were followed by strikingly 
successful results. 

We cannot go into the details of the strategy due to his advice, 
and must confine ourselves to a single example. It was one in which 
the military capacities of the two Presidents came most fully into 
contrast, that of the famous operations in the Shenandoah Valley 
during McClellan's siege of Richmond. President Lincoln and 
Secretary Stanton took occasion at this time to do a little soldiering 
of their own. McClellan lay between Washington and Richmond, 
with his base at White House, on the Pamunkey, instead of on the 



Government of the Confederacy 



333 



James, as it should have been. He was kept there as a cover to 
Washington, and McDowell's corps, which lay at Manassas, was 
promised him if he would remain there. As this juncture the 
strategists at Washington put their plan into effect. Stonewall 
Jackson was in the Valley, where he and Shields had recently been 
sharply engaged. In pursuance of the new plan McDowell was or- 




THE W^HITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 

President lefferson Davis lived in this imposing building after Richmond became Capital of the Confederacy. The 
large grounds attached to the house were beautifully laid out and adorned with statuary, flowers and fountains. 

dered to advance to the Rappahannock and Shields commanded to 
join him. Banks was ordered up the Valley with a strong force, 
the design being to crush Jackson between his army and that of 
Fremont, which lay at Moorefield and Franklin, to the westward of 
Staunton, 



334 Government of the Confederacy 

And now President Davis came into the game with a bit of 
strategy of his own, in its way the most briUiant of any in the history 
of the Civil War. He advised Jackson of his plan, and found in him 
a ready and able auxihary. Foreseeing with mihtary insight what 
the authorities at Washington would do, he skilfully prepared a 
checkmate for them. Ewell and Johnston were sent to Jackson, 
giving him in all about twenty thousand of the Confederacy's best 
soldiers. With these Jackson at once began operations. Ewell was 
sent down the Valley to find Banks. With the remainder of his 
army Jackson sought to surprise Fremont. Meeting two of Fre- 
mont's brigades in the mountain passes west of Staunton, he drove 
them back on and through Frankhn, and forced Fremont to with- 
draw all his forces to Moorestown. The line of communication 
between the two Federal generals thus broken, Jackson hastened to 
join Ewell and follow Banks, who had taken the alarm and was 
retreating down the Valley. Jackson did not pursue him directly, 
but crossed the ridge which runs down the Valley, fell upon Front 
Royal and captured its garrison, and then started on a race for Win- 
chester, toward which Banks was marching. Banks had a few 
hours the start and got there first, but he was chased so closely that he 
was forced to turn and fight, with the results that, as history gives it, 
he was sent "whirling through Winchester," and the plan to crush 
Jackson between two armies went all amiss. 

But while the original plan had failed, Lincoln and Stanton 
now fancied that Jackson had put himself into a worse trap than 
before. Fremont was ordered to march to Strasburg, Shields to 
hasten through Manassas Gap to Front Royal, McDowell to support 
him with two divisions of his corps, and Banks to follow Jackson the 
moment he showed signs of retreating. This had been foreseen in 
Davis's design. McDowell's corps had been by his stratagem sent 
in pursuit of Jackson and could not be used to reinforce McClellan. 
This done, the remainder of the plan was quickly carried out. Jack- 
son, who was kept advised of what was going on around him, 
evaded his foes by making a rapid march up the Valley to Port 
Republic, passed through Brown's Gap in the Blue Ridge to 
Gordonsville, and hastened southward by the railroad, reaching 
Richmond while he was still being hunted in the mountains far to 
the north. 

Thus was accomplished one of the most brilliantly successful 



Government of the Confederacy 335 

movements of the war. All readers of history know what followed; 
how Lee, reinforced by Jackson, fell upon McClellan's right wing 
with the purpose of seizing his base of supplies, cutting off his line 
of retreat, and capturing his entire army. The strategy of President 
Davis had robbed McClellan of McDowell's support, while bring- 
ing Jackson to Lee's aid, and there followed the memorable Seven 
Days' Fight before Richmond, which ended in McClellan, after 
terrible losses in men and supplies, being driven back on the James, 
leaving the road to Washington open to the forces of the Confederacy. 

We have described this strategic series of operations at some 
length, as the credit of devising it is known to have belonged to Presi- 
dent Davis, the result indicating that the Confederacy, in making 
him President, lost a brilliant army leader. Doubtless it gained far 
more than it lost, in having a man of his fine military acumen in the 
executive chair. We must briefly bring his story to an end. Taken 
prisoner at the end of the war, he was treated differently from any 
other leader, military or civil, in the war, being held prisoner in 
Fortress Monroe for two years, under threat of trial for treason. He 
was then released on bail — Horace Greeley, who could not perceive 
on what principle he alone should be singled out for punishment 
from the Confederate leaders, going on his bail bond. Though 
never brought to trial, he was excluded from the general amnesty of 
December 25, 1868, and spent the remainder of his life in retirement. 

Some fifteen years later Colonel A. K. McClure, a distinguished 
journaHst of Philadelphia, visited him at his home in the Gulf coast 
region of Mississippi, and gave, in his work on "The South," an 
interesting description of "the soldier-statesman without a country." 
He said: "I expected to find the strongly marked traces of a 
grievously disappointed life, and severe civihty and studied reticence 
in discussing all things of the past; but those who believe Jefferson 
Davis to be misanthropic in temperament and embittered against 
the nation and the world greatly misjudge him. Nor is he the 
broken invalid that he is generally regarded. 

"His yet abundant locks and full beard are deeply silvered, 
and his face and frame are spare as they always have been; but his 
step is steady, and the hard fines of his brow, which are so con- 
spicuous in his pictures, are at once effaced when he enters into 
conversation. Instead of impressing the visitor as a political recluse 
who has no interest in the land to whose citizenship he will live and 



2,3^ Government of the Confederacy 

die a stranger, he at once invites the freedom of the planter's home 
by chatting without reserve, save when his contemporaries are Hkely 
to be criticized, when he adroitly and pleasantly turns the discussion 
into inoffensive channels. 

"I have long desired to know the exact truth from the fountain 
of Southern knowledge on the subject in regard to several important 
events of the war, and I was agreeably surprised at the freedom 
with which Mr. Davis met my inquiries. Why Beauregard was 
ordered to fire upon Anderson in Fort Sumter, after his 
surrender was inevitable at a specified time without assaulting 
the flag, has never been entirely understood. It was the act 
of madness, as it made division in the North impossible, and I have 
always beheved that the real cause of the order to open fire was to 
unify the South and end the threatening movements for reunion on 
terms. Mr. Davis answered promptly and emphatically that the 
order was given solely because faith had been broken by the Lincoln 
administration in attempting to reinforce Anderson, and that the 
South needed no war to solidify its people. I think he errs in 
underestimating the probable power of the movement in the South 
for concentration before the war, but it is evident that in deciding 
to issue the fatal order for the assault upon Sumter he believed the 
Confederacy invincible, and defiantly resented what he regarded as 
a violation of the pledge of the Federal government. That act 
practically consolidated the North, and thenceforth the Confederacy 
was a fearfully hopeless venture. On another important point he 
answered with the same freedom. When asked whether the aggres- 
sive movement of Lee that culminated at Gettysburg was adopted as 
purely military strategy or was the offspring of poHtical necessity in- 
side the Confederacy, he answered that it was the wisest of both mili- 
tary and poHtical strategy, but that it was not dictated at all by poht- 
ical considerations. He said that the wisdom of the military movement 
was proven by the recall of Meade from Virginia and the transfer 
of both armies to northern soil; but, he soberly added, the battle was 
a misfortune. 

"As a military movement, Mr. Davis says the Gettysburg 
campaign had the entire approval of Lee, and there were no political 
divisions in the South to dictate any departure from the wisest mih- 
tary laws. I desired, also, to know whether, at the time of the 
Hampton Roads conference between Lincoln, Seward, Stephens, 



Government of the Confederacy 337 

and others, Mr. Davis had received any intimation from any credit- 
able source that Mr. Lincoln would assent to the payment of four 
hundred miUions as compensation for slaves, if the South would 
accept emancipation and return to the Union. He answered that 
he had no such intimation from any source, but that if such a propo- 
sition had been made, he could not have entertained it as the Execu- 
tive of the Confederacy. He said that he was the sworn Executive 
of a government founded on the rights of the States; that slavery 
was distinctly declared to be exclusively a State institution, and that 
such an issue could have been decided only by the independent assent 
of each State. Some of them, he added, would have accepted such 
terms at that time, but others would have declined it, and peace was, 
therefore, impossible on that basis. " 

On the principle here indicated, that of the right of the states 
to form and maintain their own institutions, Davis was persistent 
throughout his political career. In this he was the direct and most 
unyielding successor of Calhoun. The latter had held to the theory 
of state rights, including the right to secede from the Union, through 
the stormy days of the "nuUification" excitement and the great 
contests of oratory in Congress, and died in the faith. Davis held 
firmly to it through the dark era of the Civil War, and likewise died 
in the faith. 

Was he right or wrong .? Was he justified or unjustified in the 
course he pursued ^ Even to this day it is not easy to answer this 
question. It must be remembered that from the very days of the 
acceptance of the Constitution a large party, North as well as 
South, maintained the sovereign rights of the states, and refused to 
accede to the Constitution on that ground. With these men — and 
Davis stood as one of the foremost in their ranks — the citizen of a 
state owed no primary allegiance to the United States. His alle- 
giance first of all, was to his native state. He owed allegiance to the 
Union while his state remained within its folds, but when his 
state felt it incumbent upon it to withdraw, he withdrew with it, and 
yielded to its command. Such was the pohtical article of faith and 
duty held widely through the South, and those who clung to their 
state even through war and into desolation, did so under high 
convictions of honor and duty. As Dr. Brown strongly says: 
"Treason is the highest crime and deserves exemplary punishment, 
but not where there has been no treasonable intent; where they who 



33^ ' Government of the Confederacy 

committed it did not believe it was treason, and on principles held 
by the majority of their countrymen, and by the party that had gen- 
erally held the government, there really was no treason. Concede 
state sovereignty, and Jefferson Davis was no traitor in the war 
he made on the United States, for he made none till his state seceded. 
He could not then be arraigned for his acts after secession, and at 
most only for conspiracy, if at all, before secession." Certainly 
he was earnest and honest in his faith until the end. 

We have justly given large space to Lee, as the great military 
leader of the Confederate States, and to Davis, as the great civil 
leader. The other numbers of the civil administration must be 
much more briefly dealt with. Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice- 
President, was in the position of Vice-Presidents in general, having 
very little voice in the conduct of affairs. Had the course of events 
brought him to the head, he could doubtless have proved a very 
feeble substitute for the " Soldier-Statesman. " Able he was, but his 
ability was legal and legislative, not executive, and nature had not 
designed him for the difficult task which lay before the President of 
the Confederacy. The English author from whom we quoted a 
description of Davis, also gives us an excellent one of Stephens, 
whom he saw at Richmond during the war. He says: 

" Mr. Stephens is distinguished as an orator, although he does 
not look like one that can command attention. His health from 
childhood has been very feeble; and he suffers from an organic 
derangement of the liver, which gives him a consumptive appearance. 
He has never weighed over ninety-six pounds, and to see his atten- 
uated figure bent over his desk, his shoulders contracted, and the 
shape of his slender limbs visible through his garments, a stranger 
would never select him as the modern John Randolph, more dreaded 
when in the United States Congress as an adversary, and more 
prized as an ally in debate, than any other member of the House of 
Representatives. When speaking, he has at first a shrill, sharp 
voice; but, as he warms with the subject, the clear tones and vigor- 
ous sentences roll out with a pleasing sonorousness. He is witty, 
rhetorical, and solid, and has a dash of keen satire that puts an 
edge upon every speech. He is a careful student, but so very careful 
that no trace of study is perceptible, as he dashes along in a flow of 
facts, arguments, and language that to common minds is almost 
bewildering. 



Government of the Confederacy 



339 




DISTINGUISHED MEN OF THE CONFEDERACY 

Beginning at top and going to right areJudah P. Benjamin, John Slidell, William L. Yancey, Major-Genertl 
John C. Breckinridge, Governor Henry A, Wise, James M. Mason, Alexander H. Stepheni. 



340 Government of the Confederacy 

''I passed one evening with Mr. Stephens, when he came up 
from Georgia to attend Congress at Richmond, and must confess 
that I was greatly entertained. His knowledge is immense; his 
grasp of mind wonderful. His geniality of disposition is, however, 
somewhat marred by a sHght tincture of dogmatism, which, perhaps, 
is pardonable in such a man. Spare, cadaverous, and slightly 
stooping in his shoulders, his person gives no indication of the 
dignity and grace which characterize his appearance when his 
smgular genius is aroused. His countenance is grave and thought- 
ful, somewhat stern in repose, and strongly marked with Hues of 
deep, patient, even painful reflections, which infuse over it an air 
of forbidding severity. Mr. Stephens is universally and justly 
beloved in the South; and, no doubt, if he survives, will be elected 
the future President of the new Republic. " 

He survived, instead, to be elected to the Senate of the United 
States in 1865, very shortly after the end of the war. He was not 
permitted to take his seat, but he entered Congress as a Representa- 
tive in 1874 and served in the House for several terms. He was not 
inconsistent in this, for he had opposed secession to the end, making 
a strong speech against it in August, i860. In consequence of 
his view of the case, as soon as his state was ready to reenter the 
Union he was fully ready to go back with it and to treat the Con- 
federacy as a thing of the past, and did not hesitate to accept an 
election to the Senate. It must be said, however, that he would have 
shown far more dignity and consistency of character if he had fol- 
lowed the example of his chief and been less ready to desert the 
cause which he had accepted as his own. 

The earlier career of the Vice-President of the Confederacy 
may be briefly given. Born in Georgia in 1812, he was left an 
orphan at fourteen and a poor one, as his share of his father's estate 
yielded only about five hundred dollars. But by the aid of a benevo- 
lent lady he was enabled to pass through the University of Georgia, 
graduating at the head of his class. He subsequently studied the 
law, and early in his legal career was engaged in a case of the highest 
importance, in which he won the reputation of being one of the 
ablest members of the Georgia bar. His eloquence exerted a 
specially powerful influence upon juries, from the admirable sim- 
plicity of his arguments, and the earnestness and weight of legal 
authority with which he supported them. The writer jfrom whom 
we have already quoted says of his legislative career: 



Government of the Confederacy 34^ 

"Mr. Stephens became a member of the Georgia Legislature 
in 1837, which position he held for three years. In 1842 he was 
elected to the State Senate, and the following year entered Congress. 
He was connected with the Whig party, in its palmiest days; but, 
since its dissolution, has acted with the Southern politicians. Such 
has been the upright, undeviating, and patriotic policy he has pur- 
sued, that not a solitary individual in the present era of faction, 
selfishness and suspicion has mooted, 'even with bated breath, and 
whispering humbleness,' an accusation of selfish motives or degrad- 




*15 




LIBBY PRISON, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 
An old warehouse once, it became a prison for captured Union soldiers awaiting exchange. 

ing intrigues against him. In Congress he served prominently as 
chairman of important committees, and effected the passage of the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill through the House when its warmest sup- 
porters despaired of its success. The pohtical course he pursued 
on various measures has occasionally excited the transient dis- 
pleasure of the Southern people; but he has invariably succeeded 
in emerging from every contest with honor, and even with approba- 



342 Government of the Confederacy 

tion. His elevation to the Vice-Presidency of the Confederate 
States of America is conclusive of the profound esteem entertained 
for him, and of the pubhc appreciation manifested for his qualities 
as a statesman." 

The first Cabinet of the Confederacy consisted of Mr. Toombs 
of Georgia, Secretary of State; Mr. Walker, of Alabama, Secretary 
of War; Mr. Memminger, of South Carolina, Secretary of the 
Treasury; Mr. Mallony, of Florida, Secretary of the Navy; Mr. 
Benjamin, of Louisiana, Attorney-General; and Mr. Reagan, ot 
Texas, Postmaster-General. Of those, the two men of greatest ability 
were Mr. Toombs and Mr. Benjamin. The latter in 1862 succeeded 
Toombs as Secretary of State, the latter entering the Senate, and 
subsequently becoming a brigadier-general. They both were 
Senators of the United States at the time of the secession ordinances. 
In November, i860, shortly after the election of Lincoln, Toombs 
made an earnest effort to have the question of secession voted upon 
immediately, but in this he was opposed by Stephens, and the meet- 
ing of the Convention was postponed until January 17, 1861. 
Toombs and Benjamin both took part in the efforts at conciliation 
in Congress along with Davis and other Southern members, but the 
amendments to the Constitution which they proposed, and the 
demands which were especially formulated by Mr. Toombs, were 
much more stringent than the Repubhcans were prepared to accept 
and all efforts at pacification failed. Shortly afterward the Southern 
members bade a long adieu to the Halls of Congress and the country 
moved swiftly onward toward the yawning gulf of war. 

Of the members of President Davis's Cabinet, the Secretaries 
of War and the Navy had the most stringent tasks before them and 
wrought with most diligence and effect. We have already spoken 
of the strenuous and able work performed for the army, necessarily 
under the immediate supervision of the Secretary of War. Mr. 
Mallony, Secretary of the Navy, was one of the few members of the 
original Cabinet who remained in office to the end of the war, and 
the work done under his jurisdiction was so considerable and im- 
portant, in view of the scantiness of means and material at his 
command, that some allusion to it here will be of interest. We refer 
especially to the numerous iron-clad war vessels prepared for the 
Confederate Navy, the building of which showed such a vigorous 
grappling with difficulties as to make the ill fortune which attended 
most of them somewhat pitiable. 



Government of the Confederacy 343 

The first of these monsters, the famous Merrimac, had a career 
of remarkable historical interest, destroying two of the finest vessels 
in the Federal navy, and creating a panic at Washington w^hich 
approached that of the British invasion of 1814. But the most 
notable event in its career was its mighty battle with Ericsson's 
Monitor, that great naval fight which transformed the navies of the 
world. The Merrimac, an old United States frigate sunk at Nor- 
folk, and subsequently raised, given a sloping roof and covered with 
thick iron plate, held its own for hours against the enormous guns 
of the Monitor, upon whose nearly submerged hull its own balls 
were poured with little effect. It was, in the fullest sense, a drawn 
battle, but the authorities at Washington were thrown into such a 
panic that they would not permit the Monitor to try conclusions with 
its adversary again. Dire consequences were feared if this monster 
of the deep should overcome its puny antagonist and be left free to 
roam the seas at will. The foes of the Merrimac got the best of it at 
last by a land attack, taking Norfolk and forcing the Confederates 
to destroy this powerful iron-clad champion. 

The Merrimac was but the first of a considerable number of 
powerful iron-clads which were built and set afloat by the naval 
department of the Confederate Government. The industry shown 
in this direction, and the ingenuity displayed, in view of the feeble 
resources at command, were worthy of high praise. Yet formidable 
as were these vessels and high as were the hopes based upon them, 
a singular fatahty attended them all. The Merrimac was the only 
one that repaid the labor bestowed upon it. Others were launched 
at New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, and Wilmington, only to meet 
with swift and sure disaster. The Atlanta, constructed at Savannah 
out of the Enghsh blockade runner Fingal, was regarded by its 
builders as the most dangerous engine of naval war yet constructed, 
and it was expected to make short work of the blockade at Savannah 
and to raise the blockade along the whole coast. Admiral Dupont 
sent two of his best monitors, the Weehawken and the Nahant, 
against it, but he did so with fear and trembHng, dreading frightful 
results from this formidable antagonist. Yet four shots from the great 
guns of the Weehawken settled the contest. The first penetrated 
the armor of the Atlanta, and prostrated half its fighting force by the 
concussion. The second and third damaged its plating, wounded 
both pilots and demolished the pilot house, and the fourth crashed 



344 Government of the Confederacy 

through a port shutter. The fighting powers of the Altanta were 
at an end. Strong as she was, the great guns of the Monitors 
proved too much for the resisting power of the iron-clads of that day. 

The ram Manassas, used in the naval battle on the Mississippi, 
was a singularly effective war vessel. The portion of it which 
appeared above water was of the shape of a sharp-pointed egg-shell, 
so rounded everywhere that shots were sure to glance from every 
point of its surface. Bar iron an inch and a half thick covered 
twelve inches of soHd oak. Yet there were openings through which 
the shots of the Federal fleet penetrated, and after a brief fight the 
formidable ram took fire and burned. Unfortunately for the Con- 
federacy, Farragut's attack was too soon. Had it been delayed a 
few weeks it would have had to face a veritable monster of the seas. 
An iron-clad of the most formidable character was being rapidly 
built at New Orleans, which would have been capable of destroying 
the entire Federal fleet could it have been set afloat in time. Both 
Admiral Farragut and General Butler confessed this on being told 
of its character. Admiral Farragut was well advised of the re- 
ception that was being prepared for him, and hastened his assault 
in consequence, with the result that the great vessel on which the 
naval department of the Confederacy based such high hopes had 
to be blown up to escape capture. 

There were two similar eff"orts equally promising and equally 
unfortunate. The Tennessee, a very powerful iron-clad built at 
Mobile, was unfortunate in the exposure of its steering apparatus. 
This was destroyed by the shots of Farragut's assaiHng fleet, leav- 
ing the vessel a helpless prey to the hordes of cruisers that thronged 
around her hke wolves around a mired bison. And the Albemarle 
in the Roanoke, after a successful attack on the blockading fleet, 
was destroyed by a torpedo at the wharf of Plymouth while waiting 
for a consort to aid in her work. Thus, admirable as was the naval 
work of the Confederacy, misfortune followed it in all its most 
promising efforts. 

In its privateering ventures it had far greater success. Its swift 
armed cruisers scoured the seas and did vast damage to the commerce 
of its foes. This was especially the case with the renowned Alabama, 
whose speed and the skill and daring of her commander and crew 
made her a veritable terror of the seas. She met the fate of ocean 
rovers at last, but not until she had destroyed ten million dollars 



Government of the Confederacy 345 

worth of shipping and almost driven the commerce of the Northern 
ports from the seas. Such were the naval efforts of the Confederacy 
and their resuks. They reflect the highest credit upon those to 
whom they were due, in view of the paucity of resources at their 
command, while the misfortune which attended the most formidable 
among them must be classed among those contingencies to which 
all human eff"orts are subject. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

WAR'S DREAD HERITAGE AND THE 
POLITICIANS' FATAL CLUTCH 

Conditions in North after Civil War — In South — Courage and devotion of the South- 
ern soldier — Causes of conquest — Desolation of the South — Great decline in 
value of property — Effect of war on negroes — Steps toward restoration of indus- 
try — Congressional interference — The problem of reconstruction — Negro suffrage 
and its results — The carpet-bag invasion — Legislative theft and demoralization — 
A black picture of negro legislation — The Southern white rises in revolt — The 
negro in the South Carolina State-House — End of the reign of terror and restora- 
tion of property. 

IN April, 1865, the sun of peace, after a long eclipse by the 
clouds of war, cast its enhvening beams once more over the 
broad realm of the United States; but what did its welcome 
hght reveal ? In the North and West it lit up a scene of plenty and 
prosperity, a land which had been practically free from the withering 
tread of invading armies, a region of developing cities, active indus- 
tries, vast fields prepared and planted for the coming harvest, and 
a triumphant population to hosts of whom the war had come no 
nearer than in the columns of their daily newspapers. A stranger 
might have traversed the streets of hundreds of Northern cities and 
seen nothing to indicate that a four years' desolating contest had 
just reached its end. 

In the South it lit up ravage and ruin; a land torn and rent by 
the tiger claws of war; its cities half empty, with their warehouses and 
often their homes in ashes; its fields deserted and desolate; its people 
sunk into a poverty and destitution from which it seemed as if they 
could never emerge; the whole country plunged into a veritable 
Slough of Despond. The demon of war had come to them in their 
homes, roused them at midnight from their beds, swept with the 
blood-stained sword and the flaming torch through their cities, 

346 



War's Dread Heritage 



347 



tore up their railroads, burned their bridges, destroyed their gran- 
aries, stifled their industries, and left the country a weed-grown 
wilderness, peopled by a foodless and despairing population. 

In the war the North had staked its wealth; the South had 
staked its all. 
Against the 
abundant re- 
sources of the 
North it had 
put its life- 
bloodin pledge. 
Vastly sur- 
passed in t h e 
"sinews of 
war," — money, 
commerce, 
p o p ul ation, 
manufactures, 
— it had fought 
on under a 
fearful disad- 
vantage, h a V - 
ing only its 
native valor 
and far weaker 
resources to 
oppose to the 
great strength 
of its foe. Nev- 
er had the 
world seen 
more valorous 
armies, greater 
devotion to a 
cherished 
cause, abler 

leaders, more resolute purpose. Courage, dash, and daring 
were theirs to an unsurpassed extent, and with half an equal- 
ity in resources the meed of victory must have come to the 




MONUMENT TO THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS 
Erected on the Capitol Grounds, Montgomery, 
Alabama, by the Ladies' Memorial Association. 



348 War's Dread Heritage 

cause of the South. But in wealth and resources they were vastly 
surpassed, and they hurled themselves with terrific force against 
the mighty wall of Northern strength, brave and heroic to the end, 
but beating out their lives in vain against the far superior power of 
their foes. Victory comes to the heaviest purse and the strongest 
battalions and never has there been a truer exemplification of this 
adage than in the American Civil War. Steady attrition, day by 
day, and year by year, wore out the valor and energy of the South, 
and when at length it dropped the sword, it was because its grand 
army had been worn down to a frayed handful, so near starvation 
that they had only the swelling buds of the woodland to eat. The 
South had fought itself out to the bitter end, and while it was forced 
to accept the cross of defeat, it had won the crown of the world's 
admiration for a valor and devotion such as had rarely been seen. 

The war ended, what lay before the vanquished cause .? Con- 
trast the South of i860 and the South of 1865. In the former year 
we see a country which for years had been rapidly increasing in 
wealth, coming into active competition with the North in railroad 
building, in commerce and other forms of enterprise, and steadily 
growing in prosperity through the Old World demand for its great 
agricultural staple, the fleecy fibre of its fields. In the latter year 
we find it at the close of a most disastrous war and plunged into a 
depth of poverty and woe which language finds it difficult to portray. 
For four years contending armies had occupied its territory, and the 
terrors of their presence had proved that General Sherman was 
correct, if profane, when he said that "war is hell." Desolation 
had swept over the site where happy homes and busy factories 
had stood, fences were gone, farms were in ruins, and the soldiers 
who had given four years to battle and returned to take up again 
the burden of industrial life, were met by conditions as appalling 
as the people of any nation had ever faced. Over the whole land 
poverty and, worse than poverty, despair brooded. Debts had 
accumulated, wealth had vanished, and the outlook for the future 
was more gloomy than even a Dante could have fully depicted. 

Hundreds of thousands who had been among the best men of the 
South had been killed or maimed in battle, or wrecked in health, 
while thousands, unable to see any hope of business in their ruined 
land, fled in despair from the impoverished soil and went west 
or north to find a home. Then came the absolute demoraHzation 



War's Dread Heritage 349 

of the labor system, followed by political misrule and debauchery of 
the State governments, with unscrupulous white adventurers using 
ignorant negroes as their tools to enable them to carry out every 
gigantic swindUng operation which fertile brains could invent. 

The census of 1870 showed a decline in the assessed value of 
property m the South from that of i860 of ^2,100,000,000, followed 
by another decrease of ^300,000,000 between 1870 and 1880. 
And this was only part of the loss. The cost of the war, the vast 
injury done by the armies, the hundreds of thousands of vigorous 
men who died in the field, were permanently disabled, or had sought 
a new field of industry, the South's share of national indebtedness, 
made a total loss which if it could be expressed in money would 
sum up to fully ^5,000,000,000. The significance of such figures is 
not easy to comprehend, but the mere statement shows us the vast 
extent of the disaster which the havoc of war had brought upon the 
South. 

It was not alone war's desolation and the complete overthrow 
of its two century old system of labor with which the South had to 
contend. A cup more bitter still was held to its lips to drain, that 
of Reconstruction, with its multitudinous insults and injuries. Its 
loss of material resources it would have bravely borne and set itself 
earnestly to the task of winning new wealth, but the unmentionable 
evils of "carpet bag" government were worse in their way than the 
ruin caused by the war. The latter they had dared and were ready 
to abide; the former was an affliction which cut them to the bone. 

The effect of the war on the negroes of the South was as distress- 
ing in its way as its effect on the whites. Broken loose from their 
moorings and set adrift on an unknown sea, these helpless beings 
were in a state of demoralization not easy to describe. Few of them 
knew what freedom meant. Densely ignorant of political and 
ordinary industrial conditions, to many of them liberty signified 
release from labor and support without work. Their state of 
irresolution and bewilderment was pathetic, annoying, as it proved 
to those who were seeking to set in motion again the wheels of 
industry. Under the circumstances there was only one thing that 
saved the South from what might have proved a terrible social 
revolution. This was the pacific disposition of the negro, the warm 
affection which hosts of the recent slaves felt for the famihes of their 
old masters and the refusal of many of them to leave those whom 



35^ War's Dread Heritage 

they had long before learned to trust and love. Others were not 
long in learning that liberty did not mean freedom from labor, but 
it proved a difficidt task to bring them even then dov^n to steady 
w^ork under their new and untried conditions. And one cannot 
well blame those who, after their long fixation to one spot, made free 
use of their new-born freedom to rove at will, and to work or be 
idle as they pleased. 

However natural this might have been, under the circumstances, 
it was a sore vexation to those who were striving with might and 
main to restore some vestige of the vanished industrial condition 
of the South. The fields needed to be planted, the crops to be culti- 
vated and harvested; labor, steady and diligent, was a vital neces- 
sity, and the restlessness and disregard of contracts by the negroes 
threatened to render the renovation of the harried country an almost 
hopeless task. Some decisive action had to be taken, or the planta- 
tions might as well be abandoned. What took place may briefly 
be told. President Johnson in 1865 devised a plan of restoration 
under which he appointed temporary governors for the seceded 
states. These called conventions of delegates, who were elected 
by the former white voters of those states. The conventions met 
and lost no time in declaring the ordinances of secession void, 
pledging themselves to pay no debt of the Southern Confederacy, 
and ratifying the Thirteenth Am.endment, which abohshed slavery. 
But they saw that something must be done to induce the inconse- 
quential negroes to work, and for this purpose they passed com- 
pulsory laws. Those who would not work were to be treated as 
vagrants, and put to hard labor in jail. 

Under the circumstances some decisive action was necessary, 
and the one taken was well calculated to bring the trouble to a 
quick conclusion. For the law would have had to be put in efi^ect 
a few times only to bring to an end the idleness of the blacks, and its 
seeming harshness would have ceased with the need of calhng it into 
play. It was one of those severe but effective remedies which are at 
times absolutely necessary in dealing with a stubborn disease. 
But it caused an outbreak in the North which hindered its useful- 
ness. The late abolitionists loudly denounced it as a device to bring 
back slavery under a new name, and the RepubKcan majority in 
Congress went farther by refusing to acknowledge the new govern- 
ments or to consent to any of their acts of legislation. As a result 



War's Dread Heritage 35^ 

a bitter quarrel arose between Congress and the President, leading to 
hostile measures on both sides, and bringing about no end of fresh 
trouble for the South. To the physical discomforts with which they 
had to contend, to the difficulty of teaching the negroes that hard work 
was necessary for black and white alike, was added a crop of po- 
litical horrors still harder to bear, all bound up in that word which 
bitter experience made hateful to their ears. Reconstruction. 

The struggle between Congress and the President began in the 
organization of the Freedman's Bureau, its purpose being to protect 
the recent slaves against those adjudged as their enemies. Then 
came the Civil Rights Bill, which gave to the late slaves all the rights 
of citizens except that of suffrage — the latter being a State issue. 
This measure deprived the whites of the South of the right to hold 
office, with the exception of those who could swear that they had 
taken no part in the work of secession. Few of the intelligent class 
could take this "iron-clad oath," and office-holding was practically 
taken out of the hands of the Southern whites. The next step in 
reconstruction was to frame military governments for all the seceded 
States except Tennessee, which early became "reconstructed." 
Under these governments the freed slaves were given the right of 
suffrage. They formed the majority in several of the states, and in 
their supreme ignorance of political conditions constituted a mass of 
voters such as no country had ever been cursed with before. 

The worst of it was yet to come. Down from the North, like a 
ffight of locusts, came a horde of adventurers who saw a chance for 
profit in the situation. "Carpet-baggers" they were called, it being 
said that they could put all they owned into a carpet-bag. Possibly 
some of them were honest men; certainly many of them were 
thieves, and the rule which they inaugurated was one of unblushing 
brigandage. These men undertook to teach the negroes the game 
of poHtics, while the Southern whites, utterly disgusted and dis- 
heartened, held aloof. Securing the support of the ignorant blacks 
by falsehood and misrepresentation, they controlled the state 
legislatures and managed the finances in a way of their own. The 
negroes elected many of their own race to the legislatures, in which 
men who could hardly write their own names exultingly made laws 
for their former masters, while the latter remained in sullen silence 
at their homes, wondering what sore affliction would come next. 
It was worse to them than the war; there they could act, here they 
could only endure. 



352 



War's Dread Heritage 



As a result of negro legislation under carpet-bag dictation the 
states were well nigh ruined, a frightul waste of the public funds 
going on, while enormous debts were heaped up. Hundreds of 
thousands of dollars were stolen; extravagance, corruption and 
debauchery ran riot; as one public man has remarked, a general 
conflagration, sweeping from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico, 

could not have wrought 
more devastation in 
the South than the 
legislation during the 
years in which it lay 
under carpet-bag mis- 
management. 

Mr. Edward King, 
author of "The Great 
South," visited South 
CaroHna during this 
period, and graphically 
describes what he saw 
there. A quotation 
from his work will be 
here of interest: 

" The negroes nearly 
filled both Senate and 
House; there were but 
few white members 
during the first session, 
when the ignorant 
blacks were learning 
parliamentary forms; 
for which, by the way, 
ANDREW JOHNSON ^^ showed an extra- 

The second man to rhe^Jom^aWhern log c^^^^ ordinary aptitude. 

(1S08-1875. One partial term, 1865-1869.) Jobs bcgan tO appear, 

and the first drawing of blood may be said to have been in connection 
with the job for the redemption of the bills of the state banks. 
The strong influenced the weak; the negro, dazzled and enlivened by 
the prospect of the reception of sums which seemed to him colossal 
fortunes, soon became an apt scholar, and needed but little prompt- 




War's Dread Heritage 353 

ing from his white teachers. Measures for authorizing the Governor 
to borrow on the credit of the State were at once inaugurated; and 
then began a series of acts whose results are without a parallel in the 
history of revolutions. 

"Although it would seem an infamy simply to deliberately 
increase the debt of a State which had been so terribly impoverished 
as had South CaroHna by the war (her total valuation having 
decreased in ten years from ^489,319,128 to ^164,409,941), this was 
but the beginning of the outrage. Not only was the debt increased, 
but the revenues of the State were diverted from their proper chan- 
nels into the pockets of the thieves; and it has been incontrovertibly 
proven that millions have been added to the State debt without the 
authority of the Legislature. By the official statement of the Treas- 
urer of the Commonwealth, the public debt at the close of the fiscal 
year ending October 31, 1871, amounted to ^15,851,327.35. This 
showed an actual increase since the advent of the reconstruction 
legislature of 1^10,500,000, of which amount only ^4,389,400 had 
ever been in any manner authorized by the legal representatives of 
the State. And it is considered certain that in 1872 there were 
already afloat upon the market, very possibly in the hands of inno- 
cent holders, without any authority in their original issue, some ^6, 
000,000 in conversion bonds ; and it was found necessary to introduce 
an act, in 1872, to ratify and confirm this illegal issue, for which the 
"Financial Board," composed of the Governor, the State Treasurer, 
and the Attorney-General, were responsible. 

"The frauds to which the Legislature lent itself and which 
private individuals perpetrated, were contemptible. A Land Com- 
mission was established. It was ostensibly beneficent. Its ap- 
parent purpose was to buy up lands, and distribute them among 
the freedmen. An appropriation of ^700,000 was granted for that 
purpose. The State was at once robbed. Worthless land was 
purchased and sold at fabulous sums to the Government. The 
commissioners were generally accused of extensive corruption. 
When at last an honest commissioner came in it was found that a 
quarter of a million dollars had been stolen. The Sinking Fund 
Commission, is another 'oubliette' into which money raised from 
the State sinks mysteriously. The commissioners of this fraud 
were authorized to take and sell real and personal property belong- 
ing to the State, and to report annually to the Legislature the sums 

23 



354 War's Dread Heritage 

received. Public property has rapidly disappeared, but no report 
has ever been made. The pockets of an unknown few contain the 
proceeds of much valuable state property. 

"This is mighty theft; colossal impudence like this was never 
surpassed. Never was a revolution, originally intended as humane, 
turned to such base uses. Never were thieves permitted to go 
unpunished after such bold and reckless wickedness. Never before 
were a people, crushed to earth, kept down and throttled so long. 
The manhness which we received as a precious legacy with our 
Anglo-Saxon blood demands that we should cry out, 'Hold off your 
hands! Fair play!' 

"The complete centrahzation which has been the result of the 
long continuance in power of an ignorant legislature, controlled by 
designing men, is shown in the history of the elections since recon- 
struction. The governor has the power to appoint commissioners, 
who in their turn appoint managers of elections in the several 
counties. In this manner the governor has absolute control of the 
elections, for the managers are allowed to keep and count the votes, 
and are not compelled to report for some days. The chances thus 
given for fraud are limitless. For the last four years men who have 
been elected by overwhelming majorities have been cooly counted 
out, because they were distasteful to the powers that be. The 
negroes intimidate their fellows who desire to vote reform tickets, 
much as the Ku-Klux once intimidated them. 'The villainy you 
teach me I will execute.' 

"People will say that this is a black picture. It is; there is no 
light upon it. There seems small hope for a change. The election 
this year will oust some plunderers, but will not be likely to check 
corruption. The white people of the State are powerless to resist; 
they are trampled completely down." 

For several years the riot of corruption here indicated went 
on almost unopposed. The whites indeed, finding themselves 
powerless to check this unspeakable misrule, naturally banded for 
self-protection, and some among them, finding mild measures 
useless, felt themselves forced into acts of violence. The Ku-Klux 
Klan was organized, and for a time succeeded in terrorizing the 
negroes. But revolutionary measures are very apt to far overstep 
the mark, and this secret and irresponsible organization was finally 
brough to an end by military force. 



War*s Dread Heritage 



355 



In 1870 the whites of South Carolina, sick at heart at the total 
disregard of honesty and decency in the existing government, made 
a vigorous effort to regain control of their state. They nominated 
R. B. Carpenter, a RepubHcan circuit judge of well proved honesty, 
for governor, retrench- 
ment and reform 

being the sole planks ! 

in their platform. A j 

few negroes were on 
their ticket, and the 
novel circumstance 
was seen of negroes 
and southern whites 
speaking together on 
the same political ros- 
trum. But the powers 
that be were too 
strong ; the negroes 
would not vote for 
the Conservative tick- 
et; and defeat was the 
fate of this first step 
of revolt. The plun- 
derers were jubilant at 
the result, such honest 
Republicans as were 
in the state hung their 
heads with shame, and 
the native whites, not 
knowing to what ex- 
cesses the negroes 
might go, organized a 
"council of safety," as 
a measure of possibly 
necessary protection — 
a step which, as usual, led to adverse criticism in the North. 

But, despite the discouraging result of this first active effort 
to stay the tide of corruption, the reign of carpet-bagism was near 
its end. Reconstruction had been completed, all the seceded 




MONUMENT TO THE CONFEDERATE DEAD IN HOLLYWOOD 

CEMETERY, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 

Here lie 12,000 Confederate dead, to whose memory Virginia's noble 

women erected a monument of rough Virginia granite nearly 100 

feet tall in the shape of a pyramid. 



356 War^s Dread Heritage 

states were again in the Union and fully represented in Congress, 
the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing negro suiBFrage had been 
adopted, and the provisional military governments were at an end. 
The whites of the South began to take a resolute hold of the politics 
of their states. Negro legislation was still a strong element, but it 
was nearing the end of its absolute control. To depict the condition 
of affairs that existed, we cannot do better than to quote again from 
"The Great South" a description of what Mr. King saw in a 
visit to the State-House at Columbia about this time. He tells us: 

"The mammoth building, which yet lacks the stately cupola 
to be given it in a few years, is furnished with a richness and elegance 
which not even the legislative halls of States a hundred times as rich 
can equal. In the poorly constructed and badly hghted corridors 
below are the offices of the State Government — that of the Governor, 
the Treasurer, the Secretary of State, and the Superintendent of 
State Schools — each and all of them usually filled with colored 
people, discussing the issues of the hour. The Secretary of State 
is a mulatto, who has entered the law school at the University, and 
carries on his double duties very creditably. 

"In the House and Senate the negro element stands out con- 
spicuous. On the occasion of my first visit I was shown into the 
room of the House Committee on the Judiciary for a few moments. 
While awaiting the assembHng of the honorable members a colored 
gentleman, in a gray slouch hat, and a pair of spectacles, engaged 
me in conversation, and, as I inquired what was the present question 
which was exciting the patriotism and sacrifice of the virtuous 
members, he rolled up his eyes, and with a tragic air, said: 

"'Dar's a heap o' bizness behin' de carpet heah, sah.' 

"It was true, in m.ore senses than one. 

"The House, when I visited it, was composed of eighty-three 
colored members, all of whom were Repubhcans, and forty-one 
whites; the Senate consisted of fifteen colored men, ten white 
Repubhcans, and eight white Democrats. The President of the 
Senate and the Speaker of the House, both colored, were elegant 
and accomplished men, highly educated, who would have creditably 
presided over any commonwealth's legislative assembly. In the 
House the negroes were of a much lower grade, and more obviously 
ignorant, than in the Senate. They were perpetually preventing 
the transaction of necessary business by 'questions of privilege/ 



War's Dread Heritage 357 

and 'points of order,' of which, sometimes, as many as a hundred 
are raised in a single day. It being an extra session, they were 
endeavoring to make it last until the time for the assembling of the 
regular one; and their efforts were extremely ludicrous. The little 
knot of white Democrats, massed together in one section of the hall, 
sat glum and scornful amid the mass of black speakers, a member 
rising only now and then to correct an error of his friend, the colored 
man, who had the floor. 

"But some of the sable brethren were trying to the visitor's 
patience even, and after I had heard one young man talk for a half 
hour upon the important subject of what his constituents would say 
if he allowed himself to be brow-beaten into an immediate adjourn- 
ment, it was with difficulty that I could suppress a yawn. This 
youth persisted in repetitions; his voice occasionally would he heard 
rising above the general hum, precisely reiterating the words he had 
uttered five minutes before. 

"The negro does not allow himself to be abashed by hostile 
criticism. When he gets a sentence tangled, or cannot follow the 
thread of his own thought in words, he will gravely open a book — ■ 
the statutes, or some other ponderous volume lying before him — ■ 
and, after seeming to consult it for some minutes, will resume. He 
has been gaining time for a new start. 

"There are men of real force and eloquence among the negroes 
chosen to the House, but they are the exception. In the Senate I 
noticed decorum and ability among the members. Several of the 
colored Senators spoke exceedingly well, and with great ease and 
grace of manner; others were av^kward and coarse. The white 
members, native and imported, appeared men of talent at least. 
The black pages ran to and fro, carrying letters and documents to 
the honorable Senators; and a fine-looking quadroon, or possibly 
octoroon, woman, and the ebony gentleman escorting her, were 
admitted to the floor of the Senate, and sat for some time Hstening 
to the debates. 

"To the careless observer it seems encouraging to see the 
negroes, so lately freed from a semi-barbaric condition, doing so well, 
because their conduct is really better than one would suppose them 
capable of, after having seen the constituency from which they were 
elevated. One cannot, of course, prevent reflections upon vengeance 
and retribution drifting into his mind, — it was, doubtless, to be 



35* War's Dread Heritage 

expected that some day the negro would lord it over his master, 
as the law of compensation is immutable, — but there is danger in 
the protraction of this vengeance. We must really see fair play. 
Ignorance must not be allowed to run riot. If we saw it consummat- 
ing, as a Commune assembled in Paris, one thousandth part of the 
infamy which it effects as a legislature in South Carolina, we should 
cry out angrily for interference." 

While the political condition of the South had fallen into such a 
heart-breaking state of anarchy, from which it did not fairly emerge 
until a decade had passed after the close of the war, what was the 
history of its material condition ^ The extreme depression in 
industries which followed the war we have already seen, the condi- 
tions existing in the industrial world being such as to discourage 
the most enterprising. The flourishing state of affairs which had 
existed before the war had utterly vanished, and, despite the pressing 
needs, there was so little to do that half the population was without 
employment. The manufacturing industries of the past had been 
nearly all destroyed and development in this direction was completely 
arrested. Agriculture remained almost the sole channel for labor, 
and cotton was the only crop for which a ready market could be 
found. It was also the only crop which could be mortgaged in 
advance to provide the money needed for its cultivation. Fortunate- 
ly for this industry, the scarcity caused by the war had increased the 
price of the staple by a large per centage, and there was more profit 
in cotton than ever before. Yet the restoration of old conditions, 
even with this incentive, was necessarily a slow process. In 1859 
the cotton crop had yielded 3,851,481 bales. In 1869, after four 
years of effort, it yielded only 2,439,039 bales, and ten years more 
passed before the former conditions were fully restored. 

We may perhaps take 1880 for the period in which the reorgan- 
ization of the South, politically and materially, had become complete. 
The ascendancy of the negro in legislation had earlier come to an 
end, and the Southern white had regained the natural ascendancy 
which for years he had lost. The effort to put an inferior over 
a superior race had been tried and it had led to the most pitiable 
failure which political history records. Whatever the future con- 
dition of the South, it had become assured that the white man must 
be master of the situation in the future as he had been in the past, 
if utter ruin was to be averted. The material reorganization had 



War's Dread Heritage 359 

gone hand In hand with the political one, and the Southern section 
of the country appeared in a fair way of attaining a degree of pros- 
perity greater than it had ever known. The planter was raising 
as much cotton as ever before, and with a hopeful prospect of raising 
far more as the years went on. And while the agricultural condi- 
tion was thus restored, the mechanical one had advanced far 
beyond anything known in the past. For the local manufactures 
of the ante-war period there was substituted a national manufacture. 
The cotton mill had made its way southward, the iron forge and 
furnace were blazing and clattering, the iron and coal mines were 
yielding their precious products in abundance, and the South awoke 
from the horrid dream of reconstruction to find itself in a fair way 
to take rank among the busy manufacturing regions of the earth. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE PROBLEM OF THE NEGRO AS A 
FREEDMAN AND CITIZEN 

Lincoln's views on slavery — Effect of emancipation — A new negro problem — The 
negro a voter and legislator — The Fifteenth Amendment and its effect — The 
results of an evil measure — Relations of Southern whites and blacks — Mental 
conditions of the negro race — Desire for education after the war — Immaturity 
of the negro mind — Life for the passing moment — The negro's instinct of affec- 
tion — Deterioration in manners — Slavery a benefit to the negro race — The negro 
vote as an asset — The system of industrial education — Progress of the Tuskegee 
Institute — Booker T. Washington's speech at Atlanta — Views as to the condition 
and progress of the negro race. 

THE story of the negro as a slave has been dealt with in a former 
chapter. The story of the negro as a freedman needs now 
to be considered. These stories are separated by a period of 
volcanic outburst in American history, that of the great Civil War. 
They are separated by a radical act, — a revolutionary act we may 
justly term it, — the signing of the Proclamation of Emancipation by 
President Lincoln on September 22, 1862. This was announced by 
the President as distinctively a war measure. He had previously 
stated his view^ of the relations of the war to slavery in the following 
words: — "If I could save the Union without freeing a slave, I would 
do it ; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it ; if I could 
do it by freeing some, and leaving others alone, I would also do that. 
My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to destroy 
or to save slavery." And not until he felt convinced that the insti- 
tution was an element of strength to the South, and might help to 
disrupt the Union, did he issue his epoch-making proclamation. 

That such a step might sometime be taken, as an act of military 
expediency, had been long before foreseen by one of the leading 
patriots of the South. Patrick Henry, in the debates before the 
Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution, spoke 

360 



The Problem of the Negro. 361 

of the powers of Congress — with its majority of Northern members — 
in the following words: "Have they not power to provide for the 
general defense and welfare? May they not think these call for 
the abolition of slavery ? Among ten thousand imphed powers they 
may, if we be engaged in war, liberate every one of our slaves if they 
please. They have the power in clear, unequivocal terms and will 
clearly and certainly exercise it. " 

It is not Hkely that he foresaw a war in which the institurion of 
slavery would be one of the chief issues involved. But such a war 
came, and his prediction was made good. The slaves were de- 
clared free by Abraham Lincoln in the interest of the "general 
defense and welfare" of the North. There is excellent reason to 
beheve that Lincoln did not desire or propose to injure the individual 
slave owners by his act. It is a matter of history that at the time 
of his assassination the President was considering a measure to 
compensate the South for the loss of its slaves, provided the Con- 
federate States would recognize the sovereignty of the United States. 
He would have proposed his plan of compensation to President 
Jefferson Davis, if the Confederate commissioners had not told him, 
at the outset of the interview in which peace propositions were dis- 
cussed, that President Davis represented a number of sovereign 
States, and that he could not speak for them without submitting the 
matter to each. But whatever were Lincoln's wound-healing plans, 
the hand of the assassin cut them short in one dire moment, and 
threw the country into the maelstrom of dismay and disoirder that 
succeeded. 

Let all this be as it may, the fact remains, that Abraham Lincoln 
with a stroke of his pen absolutely transformed the conditions of 
labor through a large section of the United States. The effect of his 
revolutionary proclamation, when the end of the war made it 
effective, was tremendous. The war had brought ruin to the South 
as a whole. The proclamation brought ruin to many thousands of 
its individual citizens, who were at one fell stroke reduced from 
affluence to penury. The four millions of slaves in the South 
represented a vast money value. The act of emancipation swept 
away this value as by a mighty wind and left destitution in its track. 
Not alone those who were engaged in the war, but numbers who 
had taken no active part in it, doubtless many who disapproved of it, 
found themselves suddenly reduced from wealth to indigence. The 



362 



The Problem of the Negro 



suffering was widespread and extreme. Ruin spread like a devastat- 
ing flood over the fair fields and homes of the South. Rarely has so 
great a population been so suddenly and disastrously overwhelmed. 
To-day, after forty years have passed by, the aftermath of the ruin 
still remains visible. There are thousands who have never recovered 
from the effect of the loss of their property in slaves, and many of 
whom are struggling to win a living, or are dependent in their adver- 
sity upon the aid of their friends. This has nothing to do with the 
fact that the people of the South as a whole perceive and admit that 




A NEGRO FARMER'S CABIN OF A FEW YEARS AGO 

they are better off with free than they were with slave labor. It is of 
individuals, not of states, that we are speaking, and to many indi- 
viduals the cup was a bitter one, whose dregs are not yet drained. 

Time has cured much of this trouble; time will cure it all; but 
it will take more than time to cure another trouble that has followed 
in the wake of the war. With the ending of the war and the freeing 
of the slaves it was a natural conclusion to those of optimistic mind 
that the long disturbing negro problem was effectually shelved, and 
the great source of hostile feeling between the North and South 
finally removed. Those who thought so, reckoned hastily, not 



The Problem of the Negro 363 

foreseeing what opportunities for mischief this problem might still 
present. The violent removal of Abraham Lincoln, with his pacific 
intentions, and his immense influence over Congress and the people, 
added greatly to the complication that was sure to follow the war. 
Peace had hardly come before the negro problem loomed up in a new 
shape, and with an aspect little less threatening than that of the 
past. The inevitable African was with us still, and "What shall 
we do with him ?" was one of the most vital questions of the time. 

Was this state of affairs a necessary result of the close of the war 
and the process of reestablishment of the Union ? It certainly 
does not seem so. It seems rather a mischievous result of that ugly 
thing called poHtica expediency, that versatile monster which may 
take so many threatening shapes. It sprang directly from that 
partisan and ill-advised measure, the Fifteenth Amendment to the 
Constitution, by which the negro was invested unquaHfiedly with 
the right to vote. In the whole history of the United States there 
has been no more unwise and mischief-breeding performance than 
this precipitate act of a Congress in whose veins the heated blood of 
a fratricidal war still ran. 

Let us consider the influence at work in the enactment of the 
Amendment to the Constitution. The recently manumitted slaves 
of the South were already voting and holding office under the 
temporary provisional governments in the Southern States and were 
as a rule showing about as much capacity for their new functions as 
so many chimpanzees. Under the early reconstruction acts the so 
called "carpet-baggers" swarmed into the sorely harried South Hke a 
swarm of hungry locusts. They secured the support of the ignorant 
blacks, who voted or rather were voted en masse, blindly accepting 
the tickets put into their hands. Many of them were elected to the 
state legislatures, in which a saturnalia went on that threw the very 
name of legislation into contempt. Negroes who could not write 
their own names exulted in the power to make laws for their former 
masters, who remained in helpless silence at their homes, wondering 
what affliction would come next. Debt was heaped up, hundreds 
of thousands of dollars were stolen, and extravagance, corruption, 
and debauchery ran riot. As one public man remarked, a general 
conflagration, sweeping from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico, 
could not have wrought more devastation in the South than the 
few years of carpet-bag government. 



3^4 The Problem of the Negro 

It was in the face of this example of the absolute unfitness 
of the recent slaves to receive the privilege of voting, and to take 
part in legislation, that the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, 
"dire mother of unnumbered ills," was passed. The reasons for 
its adoption we do not need to go far to seek. The negroes had cast 
their votes solidly for the RepubUcan party, represented in the 
South by the carpet-bag politicians. Doubtless they would have 
voted solidly for " Massa Linkum" if other tickets had not been given 
them. In the fact of this subserviency there seemed, to the average 
politician of that day, a flattering promise of the permanent Repub- 
lican control of the South. Reconstruction would set free a host of 
white votes, which might overturn Republican supremacy in the 
Southern states, and, if the party in power wished to maintain its 
ascendancy now was the time to act. In this desire to retain the 
reins of power we see the moving cause of the policy that was pur- 
sued, the passage by Congress and the State Legislatures of the 
North of a Constitutional Amendment giving negroes absolutely 
the privilege of the franchise, and forcing the states of the South 
to accept this as an essential to their readmission to the Union. 

The time was not one for hasty measures or partisan acts. If 
ever there was a time when wise deliberation and farseeing and 
impartial judgment were called for, it was then. Precipitate action, 
under the instigation of party ambition, in such an exigency, was 
more than a fault, it was practically a crime. Yet that the 
influences which led to the Amendment were largely political ones 
seems self-evident. Certainly no such measure would have been 
passed if the negroes had seemed likely, in any considerable 
proportion, to vote the Democratic ticket; yet this should have 
had no influence whatever if the sufi^rage were deemed their due 
by right of manhood, or by Divine Command. 

The worst feature of the inconsiderate measure was, that no 
thought of the capacity of the negro for an intelligent exercise of the 
new duty thrust upon him seems to have been taken. No limitation 
was placed upon the power of the blacks to vote, though most of 
them were no more likely to vote with reason and discretion than the 
cattle in their fields. They were invested with the fullest rights of 
citizenship in utter disregard of their ignorance and incapacity, and 
the evident lack of ability in the great mass of them to exercise with 
intelligence a function which certainly calls for educational reason 





A BUSINESS STREET IN BIRMINGHAM TO-DAY. 
Through its coal mines, iron furnaces, coke ovens and cotton mar- 
ket, Birmingham has become a great city, in touch by trolley with 150,000 
people. Every office in the tall building shown in the picture was rented 
as soon as the building was finished. This is a typical business street 
of to-day. 



The Problem of the Negro 365 

and discretion. The statesman of that da^ might justly have 
quoted from Hamlet: "It is not, and it cannot come to good." 

In truth, the negro has suffered as much from the overzeal of 
his assumed friends as he ever did under the bonds of his old con- 
dition. A negro writer, who is one of the historians of his race, has 
declared that the government gave the negro the statute book when 
he should have had the spelling book; that it placed him in the 
legislature when he should have been in the school-house; and that, 
"the heels were put where the brains ought to have been." 

Ills of this kind inevitably cure themselves, but rarely without 
days or years of pain and annoyance from the wound. As might 
have been foreseen, a vigorous opposition arose among the whites 
of the South to having their intelligent exercise of the suffrage 
negatived by the votes of those who frequently did not know even the 
names on the tickets which they cast. And this opposition could 
not fail to carry the question back toward that point at which it 
should have begun, that of a limitation, intelligent or industrial, to the 
exercise of the suffrage. The pendulum has long been swinging 
steadily and surely backward, and it will not come to rest until the 
evil done by unwise and indiscreet legislation has been fully undone. 

A wrong done has the one inevitable result, that of righting 
itself sooner or later. Such must be the outcome of the wrong done 
by the Fifteenth Amendment. The gift of suffrage to the negroes, 
in view of the inability of the great mass of the race to exercise it 
intelligently, simply acted to lay upon the neck of the nation a new 
negro question, immediately after the old one had been settled "by 
pike and gun." It was one that quickly assumed prominent im- 
portance. That the whites of the South would yield the governing 
power into the hands of a vast mass of incapables of inferior race 
and lower mental power was more than could be expected, and the 
gradual disfranchisement of the negroes was an unavoidable 
result. This disfranchisement cannot be looked upon as absolute. 
The Constitutional provision holds good against that. What it will 
do, and is doing, is to separate the wheat from the chaff, gradually 
building up a body of negro voters with the intelligence and the 
personal and property interest in their state affairs, and in good 
government as a whole, which will fit them to exercise their privileges 
wisely and well. The measures taken by the South are simply 
measures of precaution and self-protection. Without them the 



366 



The Problem of the Negro 



position of the South would have become pitiable. As regards the 
negro himself, white ascendancy is a good, rather than an ill. No 
one can affirm that any obstacle has been thrown in the way of his 
advance in education and industry. Every such step meets with a 
warm welcome, showing that the white has the best good of the 
negro at heart. The negro, as a mass, must long remain in tutelage. 
As individuals many of them are, and many more will become, capa- 
ble of self-control and poHtical discrimination. As fast as this 



"Sir* 







A type of Negro farmer's cottage which is rapidly replacing the one room log cabin. 

level of development is reached the suffrage will come with it. To 
permit the mass of the incompetent to vote might be to make ir- 
remediable mischief. 

At the meeting of the Southern Society at New York on Febru- 
ary 21, 1903, the president, Augustus Van Wyck, spoke of the race 
question in the following words: 

"What the South needs and must have is peace at home, and 
jointly with the rest of the nation, international peace. There is 
but one unsettled problem peculiar to that section, commonly called 



The Problem of the Negro 367 

the negro question. The South understands it, and if left alone 
it will be settled rightly and justly in a Christian spirit. The 
natural friendship between whites and blacks of long standing (with 
no idea of social equality) is well known to those at all familiar with 
the subject. The best friends of the black race are the white race 
of the South. The future welfare and development of the former 
rests upon the absence of conflict between the two, and he who des- 
troys or lessens the amity so long existing between the two is not a 
friend of the black man, but an enemy, intentionally, or unintention- 
ally, to civilization. Let no American citizen who loves his country 
be a party to stimulating a war of race. " 

The question of negro suffrage was dealt with at the same 
meeting as follows by Mr. A. Caperton Braxton of Virginia: 

*'No white man believes in the Fifteenth Amendment, save as 
a theory to be applied to some other man's case. The loudest 
advocates of its appHcation to the South stood aghast when they 
met it face to face in the city of Washington, in the State of Califor- 
nia, and in our new insular possessions. It is wrong in principle; 
it is impossible of enforcement where the inferior race is numerous; 
it is demoralizing to the negro; it is corrupting to the white man; 
to abandon that ignorant and helpless race to their own devices 
and control would be the greatest cruelty; to set them up as rulers 
over the race that produced Washington and Lee would be a crime 
against nature and a sin against God ? 

"The Southern people entertain not the slightest animosity 
against the negro. They are, in fact, the best friends that he ever 
had. In this their acts speak louder than their words. In every- 
thing that pertains to his welfare as a man and a citizen, in his 
rights of life and liberty, in the acquisition of property and the 
pursuit of happiness, he has for thirty-five years enjoyed more in the 
South than he ever did elsewhere in all this world, since the morn- 
ing stars sang together. 

"His condition in the South to-day is far better, his opportuni- 
ties for moral and material improvement are far greater, than in any 
other country upon the face of the earth; and none of the rights 
guaranteed to him under the Fourteenth Amendment, as it was 
understood when adopted, are either denied or begrudged to him 
there. But, while all tnis is true, still in the South, just as every- 
where else in the world, white men are unalterably resolved that 



368 The Problem of the Negro 

come what may, no black, red or yellow man shall ever rule over 
them or their children so long as time shall roll. This is the decree 
of nature, which no human statute can reverse. As well try to set 
up crows to rule in a nest of eagles, or jackals to make laws for lions. 
"Just as Washington and his fellow-patriots for eight long 
years fought to gain the independence of our country, so has the 
living race of Washington striven against disheartening obstacles, 
for thirty years and more, to preserve that independence for them- 
selves and their children, and to rescue their country from the brutal 
degeneracy of attempted negro domination. Thanks be to God, 
they also have been successful." 

An apt quotation bearing upon this same subject may be made 
from "The South," by A. K. McClure, a Northern journalist, 
whose study of the results of negro rule in the Southern States 
were of a most disenchanting character. He says: 

"The problem of negro seli-rule has not been solved, as the 
true solution must be the work of years of opportunity for growth 
in fitness for it, but it has been fairly tried in two portions of the 
Union since the war, and in both instances it has resulted in de- 
bauched leaders and demoralized followers, leaving the general 
condition of the race worse because of the experiment. To assume 
that the black man, who has been a slave in the South, and a menial 
in the North, and whose education was either positively inter- 
dicted or neglected, should prove himself proficient in self-rule, 
without aid or even sympathy from the mass of whites, is to judge 
him by a standard that would overthrow every principle of popular 
government; but a country that is struggling to solve the problem 
of universal suffrage, with great states subject to the numerical 
majority of ignorant and thriftless masses, must carefully study 
every recurring phase of the effort. In Washington City, where the 
negro was first enfranchised, the nation exhibited to the world the 
most corrupt, profligate, and demoralized government to be found 
in the Union, and the same political power that gave the ballot to the 
black men of the capital was compelled to revoke the elective 
franchise and save the credit and good name of Washington by 
making the negro voiceless in his own government. It was a sad 
necessity, and a sad confession of the failure of suffrage when 
exercised by race prejudice without intelligence; but the same 
RepubHcan statesmen who gave the right of self-rule to the black 



The Problem of the Negro 369 

man in the capital of the nation, had to rescue the capital from 
destruction and shame by sweeping disfranchisement." 

The question before us is not one involving two races which are 
equal in mental capacity, the chief distinction between them being 
an industrial and educational one. The negro not only differs in 
color from the white, but he differs as greatly in mental capacity. 
It is no argument against this to adduce instances of negroes of 
marked intellectual powers. Among all races and in all times such 
prodigies have arisen, towering far above their kind. But in dealing 
with races, we cannot confine ourselves to selected individuals, but 
must consider them as wholes. And in any such broad view of the 
present instance, it would be sheer folly and bHndness to deny that 
the negro race is mentally inferior to the white. This is no subject 
for sentiment, but a plain matter of fact. The evident distinction 
is an educational one. For many years past the negroes have had 
facilities for education, excellent ones in many instances. The 
whites have done their best to foster and uplift them, and not without 
promising results. Eminent educators of their own race have done 
their part in the same useful work. Yet the results are not highly 
encouraging. While occasionally one may attain a fair level of 
scholarship, as a rule they stop short with a rudimentary education. 

This is not through lack of effort; it is chiefly through lack of 
ability. The negro when freed from slavery manifested an intense 
eagerness for education. As a slave he had long gazed with wonder 
and envy upon the supremacy and evident superiority of the whites, 
and seems to have come to the conclusion that the difference was 
due to education, and that the book would prove for him the "Open 
Sesame" to the great world of wealth and distinction that loomed 
so far above him. This trust in the magic influence of the book 
and the pen was shown in the pathetic earnestness with which the 
freed slaves sought to attain the arts of reading and writing. Their 
thirst for knowledge, while less pronounced than of old, still in some 
measure exists — but high scholarship rarely comes. The youthful 
student of African race is apt to display a marked brightness and 
alertness in the early days of his school career, and to give the im- 
pression that he is on the high-road to distinction. But this fair 
promise is soon nipped in the bud. All is well while his powers of 
memory and observation alone are called upon, but when the faculty 
of insight is demanded, when logical thought becomes necessary, 

24 



370 



The Problem of the Negro 



his mind finds itself pushing against a stone wall. He has reached 
the upper level of his powers of intellect and can ascend no higher, 
while the more reflective white leaves him far in the rear. The 
reasoning faculty, while not fully denied him, is possessed in a much 
smaller measure than by the whites, and the higher elements of 
learning soar far beyond his reach. If we look on the white, intellec- 
tually, as having reached the age of maturity, we must consider the 
negro, in this respect, as still in childhood. 




TEACHING THE NEGRO USEFUL TRADES 
A corner in the Machine Shop, Tuskegee Institute. 

In fact there are many respects in which the negro is a child. 
The negro as a race we mean, for it is not easy to draw any rule 
to which there are not many individual exceptions. But looking 
upon the blacks as a whole we find them displaying various traits of 
character which belong to the childhood of mankind. Such a trait 
IS their widespread lack of prevision, of preparation for the morrow. 
To the genuine African there is no to-morrow. The world is a 
great to-day. He lives for the passing time. His only use for 
money is to spend and enjoy it, That want and suff'ering may 



The Problem of the Negro 37 ^ 

come when work and money are gone is too big a concept to enter his 
undeveloped intellect. That he was driven to beggary last winter, 
and is likely to suffer from cold and hunger in the coming winter, 
troubles him not a whit. The summer sun is shining, and the insects 
of summer are on the wing. Tell him that it v/ill not always be 
summer, and you waste your words. He will admit anything you 
wish, but the logic of economy touches only the surface of his mind 
and the love of present enjoyment is the ruHng power in his soul. 

He is happy as the lower animals are happy when they are well 
fed and the sun shines warmly. The happiest of men are they who 
take no thought for the future, but enjoy the passing moment as it 
flies. The happiest, but not the most thoughtful or the most 
progressive. It is largely absence of thought that gives rise to such 
a temperament, non-development of the reasoning faculty, the 
childish state of the mind. The negro happy! Listen to his 
hearty laugh on the slightest of occasions. There is no shadow of 
care in that, no reservation of dread of coming trouble such as 
broods so often over the white man's soul. It rings with the utter 
joy of the shadowless moment. Behold the untrammelled zest 
of his enjoyment of every festive hour — the dance, the song, the 
music of the banjo or the band. He is capable at an instant's 
notice of throwing all thought aside and becoming a human embodi- 
ment of purely animal enjoyment. It is true there are whites, 
numbers of them, of whom the same may be said, but men of this 
mental temperament form the minority among the whites; they form 
the majority among the blacks. Forethought, prevision, heedful- 
ness for the future, discounting of the demands of the present, are 
prevailing sentiments with the mature-minded white race; they 
rarely control the immature intellect of the black. 

There is a warm and noble instinct that may rise to a high level 
in the soul of the negro, that of affection. In the old days of slavery 
he often fairly worshiped the members of his master's family, and 
during the dark days of the war nothing shows out more brightly 
than the faithfulness and devotion of many of the slaves. Eager 
as he was for liberty — even when densely ignorant of what the word 
meant^he usually showed a strong sentiment of affection for his old 
master, and after the war, when many of the planters were reduced 
to poverty, their former slaves frequently clung to them, and were 
often ready to endure any privations for their benefit. We are told 



372 The Problem of the Negro 

by the eloquent Southern orator, Henry M. Grady, that "History 
has no parallel to the faith kept by the negro in the South during the 
war. Often five hundred negroes to a single white man, and yet 
through these dusky throngs the women and children walked in 
safety and the unprotected homes rested in peace. A thousand 
torches would have disbanded every Southern army, but not one 
was lighted." These few words speak volumes for the relations of 
amity which existed between the whites and blacks before the war, 
and go far to prove that the stories of ill treatment of the slaves 
had to do only with local instances. In the annals of the manufac- 
turing industries of the North it is highly probable that examples of 
cruel treatment of the laboring class were much more common than 
on the plantations of the South, though it did not take the same form. 

The feeling which the blacks entertained toward their master's 
family was reciprocated, the relation between them being largely 
a patriarchal one, with much warm affection between the ruling and 
the serving races. A. K. McClure, from whose work on "The 
South" we have already quoted, says in regard to the sentiments of 
North and South in this particular: 

"The prejudice of race is five-fold stronger in the North than in 
the South. The Northern people have no love for the black man, 
and even those who battled for his freedom and enfranchisement, as 
a rule, cherish vastly more profound prejudice of race than do the 
Southern people. While the North maintains its deep prejudice of 
race, the people of the South have a general and strong sympathy 
for the negro. Nearly all of them have played with the negro in 
childhood, have been nursed by the black "mammy" and have 
grown up with more or less affection for them. Classify it in what 
type of affection you may, it is none the less an affection that tempers 
the hard, unyielding prejudice of race that prevails in the North." 

It is in many respects a pity that the patriarchal condition of 
Southern life has passed away. A pity, that is, so far as the senti- 
ment formerly existing between whites and blacks is concerned. 
The two classes are separating, and the domestic intimacy of their 
former relation has disappeared, certainly in many respects to the 
disadvantage of the blacks. There were two particulars in which 
they were benefited under the old conditions. They received a 
training in domestic service — in the kitchen, the laundry, the planta- 
tion workshop, the garden — which they no longer obtain, and they 



The Problem of the Negro 373 

have distinctly retrograded in consequence. For instance, not 
many examples exist to-day of the famous old black cook of planta- 
tion times. She is a character that is not being reproduced. And 
they received a training in courtesy, which has Hkewise largely 
vanished. With their strong bent toward imitation, the domestic 
negroes of the past copied the manners of their masters and mis- 
tresses and of the younger members of the household, and acquired 
a degree of deference and politeness of manner which it is rare now 
to find. The intimate domestic relations which formerly existed 
between the two races has passed away, and with it has come a 
marked deterioration in this particular in the colored race. This 
is especially shown in the cities, where the blacks herd together, and 
lose much of that education in manner which they formerly instinc- 
tively absorbed. 

To return to what is above said about the undeveloped mental 
condition and the tendency to yield to emotional impulse in the 
negro, there is something to be added. We have spoken of the 
negro as an African, but at the present day this is largely a mis- 
nomer, the blacks in America having advanced far beyond the former 
status of their ancestors in Africa. If returned to their ancestral 
home to-day, a marked superiority in many respects would be 
shown by the American over the African black. Much has been 
said by emotional writers about the serious injury done to the negroes 
in bringing them from their native land and selling them into slavery. 
Yet, in great measure this applies only to the individuals thus dealt 
with, not to their descendants. These, as a whole, have derived a 
very great benefit from their life in America, and if transferred back 
to their original tribes to-day would be apt to feel severely the marked 
contrast between their two conditions. It would be like going many 
steps down the ladder of progress. While the negro in Africa has 
stood still in his pristine barbarism, the negro in America has made 
decided steps forward in the essentials of civilization. 

The slaves imported from Africa were valued and sold at an 
average price of $50.00 a head. Their counterparts could probably 
be bought in Africa to-day, if the trade were permitted, at one 
dollar a head. It looks like a most decided improvement in their 
character and condition to find them seUing in ante-war times for as 
much as $1000 a head. Indeed, from the financial standpoint 
slavery seems to have been greatly the opposite of an injury to the 



374 The Problem of the Negro 

race. The slave was a piece of property for which his master had 
paid a good price, and certainly the planters must have been few 
who would do anything to reduce his value. We do not find the 
farmer willing to injure his horse or cow, and the slave-holders 
would, if merely from sordid motives, have been little likely to mal- 
treat a far more valuable laborer, — even if the tact that the laborer 
was a man like himself did not bring far higher motives into action. 

In fact the institution of slavery was a blessing, even if it be 
considered a blessing in disguise, to the blacks. Their association 
with the whites taught them a thousand useful things they would 
never have learned in their original country. It civilized and made 
Christians of them. It trained them in the arts and amenities of 
enlightened lands. It benefited them mentally as well as physically, 
and no greater injury could to-day be done to them than to transfer 
them back to the tribal conditions of their ancestors. And even 
granting that this advance was gained through a long period of 
servitude, it has lifted them to-day into the lofty position of free 
American citizenship, the highest position, we venture to assert, 
possessed by any people on the face of the globe. 

All that is above said holds good even if the privilege of voting 
be withheld from them until they show themselves capable of exer- 
cising it. It is certainly difficult to see what advantage there can 
be either to black or white in the permission to deposit a ballot in 
a box, while unable to read the name on the ballot, while densely 
ignorant of the principles of the party voted for, and while knowing 
nothing of the character and probable action of the candidate even 
if familiar with his name. The suffrage, under such conditions, 
is a pure mockery. As regards the right of being represented in the 
legislative councils of state or nation, what kind of a representation 
is it if the voter does not know what policy his candidate stands for, 
or what kind of legislation he is likely to support ? There is far too 
much voting of that sort already in our land, and to add to it by the 
votes of a vast group, millions in number, is to reduce the principle 
of representative government to the proportions of a farce. An 
intelligently cast vote is always welcome, no matter from whose 
hands it falls. Votes of this kind go to build up the stabihty of our 
nation. But the vote of the average negro is a very different thing, 
and its effect is distinctly injurious to the cause it is called upon to 
sustain and to the innate principle of republican institutions. 



The Problem of the Negro 



375 



The negro himself recognizes this. He has quietly subriiitted 
to the degree of disfranchisement which it has proved necessary to 
adopt. If he had understood the principles or apprehended the 
value of the suffrage would he have done so .? There is much reason 
to believe that the appeal of the suffrage to very many of the negro 
voters was of the character indicated in the following incident, 




AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION FOR THE NEGRO 
Drawing plants from the hot bed for transplanting on the farm, Tusltegee Institution. 

stated by a writer who asked a negro in his employ if he wished to go 
to the election. The darkey voter replied: 

"No, Boss; I cannot afford it. I am getting one dollar a day 
for my work, and I can't get but fifty cents for my vote. The fact 
is, Boss, if I can't get any more for my vote than I have been getting 
lately, I don't care if I never see another election. We used to get 
two and three dollars, and now, just think, I can get but half a 
dollar, No more elections for me, Boss, at that price. " 



376 The Problem of the Negro 

Here was a fact which the negro was quick to learn, that his 
vote was an asset, something that had a cash value, and there is 
excellent reason to believe that this is all the value or significance it 
had for the great bulk of them. Is it surprising in view of all this, 
that several of the Southern states have felt it necessary to amend 
their constitution, so as to winnow out from the electorate the 
ignorant, debased and corrupt voters, limiting manhood suffrage to 
the intelligent classes ? Certainly many of the Northern states 
would be greatly benefited by a similar reform. The requirement 
that the voter should be able to read and write, or own a small 
amount of property, personal or real, is no hardship. The negro 
is satisfied with it. The complaints made about it came not from 
him, but from his sentimental friends. No one can say that it has 
worked an injury, while it has effectually removed a cause of active 
hostily between the whites and blacks. Nothing could have gone 
farther to solve the negro problem to which the acts of the reconstruc- 
tionists gave rise than the wise and limited restriction of the suffrage. 

If any one asks, how is the negro to be regenerated, the most 
pertinent answer that can be given is, by education. But the educa- 
tion here referred to is not that kind which many educators are 
unwisely and uselessly seeking to force upon him, but that kind 
which the foremost educator of his own race, Booker T. Washing- 
ton, has done so much to develop, industrial training. This, in the 
Tuskegee Institute, is not confined to the teaching of trades, but 
takes in also training in the amenities and decencies of life, the use 
of soap and the tooth-brush, the living in houses with separate 
rooms, the moralities of domestic existence, the value of economy, 
the habit of self restraint and intelligent provision and the other 
requisites of civilized society. 

The effort to make a scholar of the negro is sure to be attended 
with failure and disappointment. His mental capacity does not 
adapt him to more than a very limited range of scholarly education. 
This, of course, is not all-embracing . There are members of the 
race of expanded intellect and capable of advanced scholarship — - 
men usually with a considerable infusion of white blood in their viens. 
But these are the exceptions. The great mass of the race cannot 
be pushed far beyond the primary elements of education — reading, 
writing, a limited amount of arithmetic, and a minor sum of other 



The Problem of the Negro 377 

studies. We cannot do better in this connection than to quote from 
a recent report by Mr. J. Y. Joyner, Superintendent of Public In- 
struction in North Carolina. He says: 

"In the South the sphere which the negro must fill is industrial 
and agricultural, and therefore his education must be largely agri- 
cultural and industrial. He must be educated to work, and not 
away from work. By directing his education into these channels 
we may be able to save him from idleness and the vices that follow 
in its train, and to make of him a potent factor in the industrial and 
agricultural development of the State, and a happier, more prosper- 
ous and useful citizen. 

"Have we not. . . .sadly erred in trying to force on the negro 
race, but one generation removed from bondage and ten generations 
from savagery, with essentially different racial traits and endow- 
ments, the same sort of education that our own race, with its different 
endowments and its thousand years of freedom and education, has 
been preparing itself for ?" 

Among the first to perceive the fact here alluded to was Booker 
T. Washington, one of the ablest men and advanced thinkers which 
our country holds among men of negro blood. Mr. Washington's 
story is a highly interesting one. Born a slave — a few years before 
the Civil War — he became in early boyhood filled with an intense 
thirst for knowledge, and after years of hard struggle with indigence, 
made his way on foot from the mining region of West Virginia to 
Hampton Institute, the pioneer establishment for the education of 
the negro upon common-sense grounds. At Hampton his dihgence, 
his eagerness, his intelligence and high sense of honor, gave him 
distinction, he won the affection and respect of his teachers, and when 
the request came for one capable of handling a normal school for 
negroes, to be established at Tuskegee, Alabama, young Washing- 
ton was selected as the best student in the institution for the place. 
At Tuskegee his progress was remarkable. Beginning in 1 88 1 in a 
weather-beaten shanty with thirty students, he has under his control 
to-day property valued at several hundred thousand dollars, includ- 
ing 2,267 acres of land upon which the students themselves have 
erected a large number of buildings. The students number over 
one thousand and the instructors nearly one hundred, while twenty- 
six different industries are taught, and every year young men and 
young women are sent out to inaugurate the Tuskegee system in 



378 The Problem of the Negro 

other parts of the South. And for all this we must give Mr. 
Washington almost the sole credit. There is no man more hon- 
ored and esteemed to-day in the United States, North and South 
aUke, than this pioneer in the true field of progress of the negro 
race, and we cannot do better than quote some of his views. 
Probably the best exposition of them was in the address which 
he made at the opening of the Atlanta Exposition of 1895, 
before the directors of the Exposition and an immense audience, to 
whom he was introduced by Governor Bullock as "A representative 
of negro enterprise and negro civihzation." He said: 

"Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first 
year of our new life, we began at the top instead of at the bottom; 
that a seat in Congress or the State Legislature was more sought 
than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention or 
stump speaking had more attractions than starting to do farm or 
truck gardening. 

"A ship lost at sea for several days suddenly sighted a friendly 
vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was suddenly seen 
a signal, 'Water, water, we die of thirst!' The answer from the 
friendly vessel at once came back, 'Cast down your bucket where 
you are.' A second time the signal, 'Water, water; send us 
water!' ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, 'Cast 
down your bucket where you are." And a third and fourth signal 
for water was answered 'Cast down your bucket where you are.' 
The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, 
cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water 
from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who 
depend upon bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who 
underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations 
with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I 
would say, 'Cast down your bucket where you are.' Cast it down 
in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by 
whom we are surrounded. " Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, 
in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. 

"And in this connection it is well to bear in mind that, what- 
ever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it comes to 
business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the negro is given 
a man's chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this 
Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our 



The Problem of the Negro 379 

greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom 
we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the 
production of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall 
prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common 
labor, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of 
life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line 
between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws 
of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there 
is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the 
bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. 

"To those of the white man who look to the incoming of those 
of foreign birth and strange tongue and habit for the prosperity of 
the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, 
'Cast down your bucket where you are.' Cast it down among the 
eight millions of negroes, whose habits you know, whose fidehty 
and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous 
meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among 
the people who have, without strikes and labor wars, tilled your 
fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, and 
brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped to 
make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the 
South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and 
encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to educa- 
tion of head, hand and heart, you will find that they will buy your 
surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run 
your factories. 

"While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, 
that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, 
faithful, law-abiding and unresentful people that the world has seen. 
As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past in nursing your 
children, watching by the sick-bed of your mothers and fathers, 
and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so 
in the future, in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a 
devotion which no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our 
lives, if need be, in defense of yours, interlacing our industrial, 
commercial, civil and religious life with yours in a way that shall 
make the interests of both races one. In all things that are purely 
social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all 
things essential to material progress. 



380 The Problem of the Negro 

"The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of 
questions of social equaUty is the extremest folly, and that progress 
in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be 
the result of severe and constant struggle, rather than of artificial 
forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets 
of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and 
right that all the privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more 
important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. 
The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth 
infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera- 
house." 

We have given the bulk of this address from the fact of its 
remarkably favorable reception. The speaker was highly congratu- 
lated by Governor Bullock and many others of note in the audience, 
and the press of North and South afike published it with highly 
complimentary remarks. Said Mr. Clark Howell, editor of the 
Atlanta ''Constitution," "Booker T. Washington's address was one 
of the most notable both as to its character and to the warmth of its 
reception, ever delivered to a Southern audience. The address was 
a revelation. The whole speech is a platform upon which whites 
and blacks can stand with full justice to each other." 

As regards the negro question as it stands to-day, we cannot do 
better than to quote from the words of a recent writer: 

"There is but one solution to the so called negro problem. Let 
it alone. Let it severely alone. Every interference from the outside 
but comphcates the problem of the South, and, indeed there would 
be no problem but for this interference. Booker Washington knows 
this to be true, and his poHcy is to make useful citizens of the negroes 
by teaching them how to work. He knows that without the moral 
support of the Southern people his mission is bound to prove a 
failure. Let the negroes alone. The Southern people, of all the 
white races, value their services most highly. Self-interest alone, 
if no other consideration presented itself, would prompt the South- 
ern people to treat the negroes with justice and give them opportuni- 
ties in life, but they will never submit to have their property virtu- 
ally confiscated by putting the ballot in the hands of the negroes. 
The horrors of reconstruction made a more enduring impression 
on the Southern mind and heart than all the hardships and dangers 
of the battlefield. 



The Problem of the Negro 381 

"The South to-day is by far the most peaceful, law-abiding and 
industrious portion of the United States. Where there is one male- 
factor there are ten thousand quiet, energetic citizens pursuing 
their daily vocations and increasing their fortunes. The negroes of 
the South, let it be confessed, are doing their part to advance its 
prosperity. Their work on the cotton, tobacco, rice and sugar 
plantations is one of the greatest factors in the world's progress. 
Let the South stand by the negro in everything short of social equal- 
ity and the abuse of the ballot." 

Clark Howell, above quoted, says further in regard to this 
subject: 

"As for the negro, he is being treated more fairly in the South 
to-day than in any other part of the Union. The best people of both 
races understand each other. If there is a problem, it will work 
itself out in God's own way, and in His appointed time. The 
result cannot be forced. To attempt to do it is to lose all the progress 
that has been made, to hinder instead of to help the negro, to make 
it harder for those in the South who do understand him and his 
conditions, to help the race in its effort at practical elevation." 

At the negro industrial conference held at Tuskegee in Febru- 
ary, 1903, the following pertinent resolutions were adopted: 

"We believe that our progress centers largely around the ac- 
quiring of land, homes, the exercise of economy, thrift, the payment 
of taxes, and thorough education of head, hand and heart to the end 
that we constantly grow more fit for all duties of citizens. 

"Since the greater portion of us are engaged in agriculture, 
we urge the importance of stock and poultry raising, the teaching 
of agriculture in the country schools, the thorough cultivation of a 
small acreage rather than poor cultivation of a large one, attention 
to farm work in winter, the getting rid of the crop mortgage system, 
and the habit of living in houses with but one room. 

"We urge better schools in the country districts, more protection 
to life and property, better homes for tenants, and that home life in 
the country be made more attractive, all this mostly with a view of 
keeping our people out of the large cities in such great numbers. 

" In connection with better schools and churches, we emphasize 
the need of careful attention to the moral character of our ministers 
and teachers, and all others acting in the capacity of leaders. 

"Prosperity and peace are dependent upon friendly relations 



3^2 Xhe Problem of the Negro 

between the races, and to this end we urge a spirit of manly forbear- 
ance and mutual interest." 

In conclusion we quote the following pertinent remarks from 
Senator McEnery of Louisiana: 

"Property in large holdings will in time be divided. When the 
large plantations in the South are divided into small farms owned 
by white men, and the negro is employed as a farm hand, there will 
then commence the better formation of his character in the recogni- 
tion of his industrial worth and his personahty. He will become a 
better and more intelligent and useful citizen, and can on his own 
responsibility exercise the privilege of voting. There will be a 
gteater incentive for him to improve when he becomes the owner of 
land and consults with his white neighbors on all matters pertaining 
to his farm, to roads and the well being of the neighborhood, in the 
suppression of the smaller crimes to which the shiftless of his race 
are addicted. If the negro in the South is left alone, if he is not 
deluded with false promises, if he is not forced into places where he 
has no business, he will get along with his white neighbor without 
friction and work out untrammeled his salvation. This would be 
the best pohcy to pursue toward him with our present knowledge 
of his capacity, his racial characteristics and history. ' 

In concluding this chapter it may be well to refer to the 
suffrage requirements of the Southern States, which are by many 
supposed to discriminate against the negro voter. The fact is, no 
such legal discrimination exists except in the case of Louisiana. 
There is an educational qualification in the suffrage law of South 
Carolina and Mississippi, but this applies to all alike, as in the 
similiar laws of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Virginia gives the 
voting privilege to all who have served in the army or navy of the 
United States or the Confederate States; but as any one can vote 
who, six months before the election, has paid poll tax for the three 
preceding years, this privilege can scarcely be looked upon as a 
discrimination against any citizen. In Louisiana all can vote who 
can read and write, or who have ^300 worth of property assessed in 
their names — also all whose fathers or grandfathers were entitled to 
vote on January 6, 1867. This Is the famous "grandfather clause," 
about which so much has been said. As probably most of the 
whites affected by it can read and write, and could therefore vote in 
any case, the special privilege it grants is of small importance. 



CHAPTER XXL 

KING COTTON THE SNOWY MONARCH 
OF SOUTHERN INDUSTRY 

Cotton is king — Beginning of cotton culture — The seed and its annoyance — The 
cotton gin invented — Its wonderful effect — Varieties of plant cultivated — Life 
on the plantation — The fascination of the business — The negro laborer in 
Mississippi — A home-coming procession — The seed an item of value — Great 
yield of cotton-seed oil — Other by-products — Cotton cultivation — Ginning and 
pressing — Fluctuations in cotton growing — Increase in consumption — The cotton 
mill in the South — Rapid progress in Southern manufacture. 

THAT "Cotton is King" was an article of faith long held by 
political economists in the United States, and certainly not 
without ample warrant, for the snowy fibre of the South 
reigned supreme for many years among the industrial products of 
this country. And cotton was King in a fuller sense even than this, 
for it brought the great manufacturing nations of Europe into 
subjection to the cotton planter, their people being largely dependent 
upon him for labor and the necessities of life. A great white monarch 
was King Cotton, sitting high enthroned among the rulers of the 
world, but never tyrant nor oppressor, rather one of those beneficent 
lords of mankind whom the world kneels down to bless. 

The reign of King Cotton began near the end of the eighteenth 
century and extended throughout the nineteenth, though as the 
latter approached its close other rulers rose to dispute the throne, 
chief among them King Corn, King Iron and King Coal, though 
none of them succeeded in dethroning him. The story of the culture 
of cotton in the United States is a highly interesting one. It began 
as a snow storm is apt to begin, with a few scattered flakes, which 
give little promise of the great coming fall. The first event to 
attract our attention in the American cotton culture dates from 
1784. In that year William Rathbone, an American merchant in 

383 



384 Cotton the Snowy Monarch 

Liverpool, received from a Southern dealer a consignment of eight 
bags of cotton, weighing about 1200 pounds. On its arrival at 
Liverpool the custom-house officers laid hands'of violence upon this 
stranger, declaring that it could not possibly have been grown in the 
United States, and that its importation in a foreign vessel was a 
breach of the laws. It took some trouble to convince the doubt- 
ing officials that it was truly of United States and not of West India 
growth, and even after that it lay long unsold, the spinners being 
afraid to deal with this untried material. 

This was not very encouraging to the planters, and years passed 
before much was done in handling the new field crop. Up to 1792 
the annual exportation reached only 138,324 lbs. But there was 
then a great spring upwards, and by 1900 it had reached the large 
total of nearly 18,000,000 lbs. Tht reason for this immense increase 
it is easy to understand. The great difficulty in the early cotton 
culture had been to get the hard, bean-like seeds out of the fluffy 
masses of white fibre in which they lay closely concealed. This 
was work for the slaves, for it had to be done by hand, and it took 
a good workman a full day to prepare a pound of the fibre for mar- 
ket. Unless some cheaper and faster method than this could be 
found cotton was likely never to prove a profitable crop for American 
growers. 

The way out of the difficulty was found by a Yankee inventor 
named EH Whitney, who had gone south to teach in a Georgia 
family. The widow of General Greene, who Hved in Savannah, 
became his friend, and discovering that he was very clever in 
mechanical devices, she and some of her planter friends induced the 
young man to try his hand upon a machine for taking the seed out 
of the cotton in a more rapid way than by aid of the fingers. 

Whitney knew nothing about cotton picking, but he was alert 
and ingenious, and it was not long before he had produced a machine 
that did the work admirably well. A workman could clean more 
cotton in a day by the use of this instrument than he could have done 
in many months by hand. The ''cotton gin," as it was called, has 
been much improved since Whitney's day, but its principle remains 
the same as when it left his hands in 1793. It consists essentially 
of a hopper of which one side is formed of strong parallel wires, 
with a set of circular saws behind them whose teeth project between 
the wires. When the cotton is fed into the machine, the sharp 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 



385 



saw-teeth catch the lint, tear it off from the seeds, and drag it 
through the wires, while the seeds, which are too large to pass 
through the openings, sHde down to the bottom of the hopper. A 
revolving brush sweeps the lint from the saws as they turn and 
leaves them clean to continue their work. A slave who could clean 
only a pound of cotton a day by hand, could prepare a thousand 
pounds by this machine. 

Whitney had the ill-fortune of many inventors. The story of 
his remarkable success got abroad, and before his model was ready 




THE COTTON GIN, INVENTED IN 1793 

A machine which does the work of more than 1,000 men. 

for the patent-office his workshop was broken open and the model 
stolen. The thieves who abstracted the gin made money from it, 
but all that the inventor ever received was fifty thousand dollars 
voted him by the legislature of South Carolina. Truly he might 
justly have changed the Scriptural phrase, "the way of the trans- 
gressor is hard," to "the way of the inventor is hard." 

The effect of Whitney's invention upon the cotton culture was 

extraordinary. Thousands of acres of Southern land, which lay 

waste as unsuited for the production of indigo, rice, or tobacco, 

were planted in cotton, and before the end of the century the prod- 

25 



3^6 Cotton the Snowy Monarch 

uct had increased nearly a hundred fold. In the year before the 
Civil War it had grown to the enormous total of over two billion 
pounds, or about four milHon bales, and since then has again much 
more than doubled in amount. 

A curious story is told in this connection. In 1794, the year 
in which Whitney's invention was patented, the crop had so increased 
that 3200 bales, of 500 lbs. each, were sent abroad. This seemingly 
immense production so frightened the farmers that they pledged 
themselves to abandon cotton culture. One of them, looking at his 
year's crop, exclaimed; "I have done with the cultivation of cotton; 
there is enough in that gin-house to make stockings for all the people 
in America." Little did he dream that within a century the cotton 
crop would be 3000 times as great, and that the world, like Oliver 
Twist, would still be calling out for "more." 

There are in all nearly twenty varieties of the cotton plant 
(Gossypiutn), but only two of these are cultivated in the United 
States. One of these is the Sea Island cotton (G. Barbadense), 
which demands the saHne ingredients of the coast soil, and is 
grown upon the islands and sea-coast of South Carolina and 
Georgia, in Florida, and on the coast lands of Texas. This pro- 
duces a fibre valuable for its length and silky texture. It is used in 
the finest work for laces, fine musHns, spool cotton, etc., but its 
yield is unimportant in quantity. The other variety, from which the 
great commercial crop of the country is obtained, is the woolly-seed 
cotton (G. hirsntum), which is grown in all the remaining portion of 
the cotton states, and yields an immense annual crop. 

The cotton fibre, which yields material for clothing for much 
the larger part of the human race, is the wing of the seed, intended, 
by nature to convey it to a distance through the aid of the wind, 
but found by man adapted to very different uses. Before the seed 
boll ripens and bursts, the fibre is represented by a cell containing 
watery sap, which wraps itself in many folds around the seed. In 
ripening the sap dries out, and the fibre flattens and takes the form 
of a twisted ribbon, something like a twined shaving. It becomes 
elastic, bursts the boll, and protrudes in readiness to be caught and 
blown out by the wind, carrying the seed with it. It is the twisted 
character of the fibre which gives cotton its great value, the fibres 
adhering closely to each other in consequence of their convolutions. 
It is easy to twist the cotton fibres by aid of the fingers so as to form 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 387 

a strong cord of any desired length. All other fibres require mechan- 
ical or chemical treatment before this can be done. 

There is no state of the South, with the exception of Maryland, 
in which cotton is not grown, but the product of Virginia, Kentucky, 
and Missouri is very small, and the great bulk of the crop comes from 
the ten remaining States — Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and 
Texas being decidedly in the lead. In 1900-01, for instance, these 
four States yielded nearly 7,000,000 out of the total of 10,425,000 
bales. In 1904-05 however, South Carolina and Louisiana came 
strongly into the field, with more than 1,000,000 bales each. In the 
year mentioned Texas had a yield of 3,235,000 bales, nearly one- 
fourth of the total great product of that year, which reached the 
vast total of 13,557,000 bales, the greatest crop to that time produced. 
This superiority of Texas is, of course, a result of its much greater 
acreage. For many years Mississippi was well in advance in 
product, and to-day, if worked to its full capacity, could probably 
yield a total equal to the whole product of the Southern states. 
For of the acreage adapted to cotton in the states indicated, only a 
small percentage has been brought under cultivation for that crop, 
the remainder being otherwise usefully employed. 

The great fertile district extending from the Gulf of Mexico to 
the Panhandle of Texas, from the curving boundary lines of the 
Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to the Rio 
Grande River, has been called the Land of Cotton. The most beau- 
tiful, as well as the most typical, plantations are those in the valleys 
of the Red and the Mississippi Rivers, where the soil is a rich red 
loam, easily cultivated as well as productive and responsive. The 
climate is mild and salubrious, and all natural conditions are favor- 
able to the cultivation of the cotton plant. In all its stages of 
growth it is the most interesting of those plants that fall under the 
class commonly designated as "useful." Its very seed is a mystery 
of the life principle, for that small, woolly, rusty little cocoon con- 
ceals the warp and woof of the great proportion of humanity's 
covering. After lying all winter in neglected heaps about the 
old gins and barns, the seeds are tossed into the moist earth, and 
soon the three-leaved plants appear, running in long straight rows 
for miles across the fields of bottom-land. The blossom, appearing 
as a pink bud, becomes white petaled, filling the land with a rare 
fragrance. All the while the process of cultivation goes on, the 



3^8 Cotton the Snowy Monarch 

dark-faced laborers plowing, thinning, hoe'ng, and weeding. It is 
a leisurely work which suits the indolent nature of the negro, the 
ordained cultivator of cotton. 

During the summer drouth the green stalks turn brown, and 
the leaves fall away, giving place to the cooped boll with its contents 
of snow. Soon these bolls burst, and out comes the fine dry fabric. 
"Cotton-pickin' time" begins, the merriest, jolliest, "flushest" 
season the darkies ever know. With good natured hardihood they 
desert their town homes, for it doesn't pay to tend horses, run errands, 
nurse and cook while the vast fields of cotton stretching beyond 
invite their nimble fingers, and promise pay for actual number of 
pounds picked. 

Some of these plantations are small colonies in themselves. 
Their boundaries include many miles square of prairie and timber 
lands. Upon each is the store for general merchandise, a post- 
office, church, and school house, besides the mill, gin, press, com- 
press, and warehouses. There are the renters' houses, the "hands' " 
cabins, each with its truck patch and pig pen, the owner's house, 
stables, barns, and carriage houses. There are an ice-house, a 
dairy, an apple-house and smoke house, and buildings innumerable. 
Fruit orchards and vineyards, hammocks and rustic seats, all 
contribute to make the life of the Southerners as enviable as possible. 

About these old plantations fingers the atmosphere of ante- 
bellum grandee life. Things are done on a large scale. Suppfies 
are laid in by the barrel and hogshead, and produce is planted and 
garnered accordingly. Yet everything is subservient to King Cotton, 
who fills the measure of the hearts and expectations of his subjects. 
Year after year, and crop after crop, bring no great profits to the 
owner. He does not seem to take into consideration the diff'erence 
between the former times, when he owned both labor and product, 
and the present condition with its divided interest, daily wages, 
inequafity of labor, and decreasing capabilities, which have warped 
the conditions of the industry since the war. Paid labor is not equal 
in many ways to slave labor, for the slaves worked for the interest of 
their masters. As many as five hundred slaves often grew up to- 
gether on one plantation. They knew but one home and one 
occupation. Their first toddhng steps were between the rows of 
young cotton, and they learned to sing the cotton-field songs as soon 
as they could talk. Their wants were few; their knowledge of 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 389 

life and its possibilities was bounded by the blue rim of the horizon 
which set on their master's plantation. Now they are a set of 
shiftless nomads, wearying of the new broom of their spasmodic 
energies at one plantation, and moving on to a fitful spell of work at 
another. 

This in a great measure accounts for the uncertainties. Em- 
ployer and employee have no longer a mutual interest. As for white 
cotton hands, they do not pay. The hot seasons are too intense for 
them and the returns too precarious. Yet the Southerner clings to his 
cotton fields, for the business possesses a peculiar fascination alike to 
planter and worker. There are the green fields in the spring-time; 
the blossom fields in the summer; the brown fields of early autumn; 
and the snow fields of harvest-time. There are the pickers in wagon- 
loads and tramping crowds, weary and care-free. They sing all day 
as they fill their baskets, joking and depreciating each other's skill 
as they wait about the weigher's stand at night for their weights and 
pay, and singing again to the merry tinkle of the banjo, as they 
lounge about their cabin doors before bedtime. There are the gins 
with their creaking machinery and snow-drifting lint room; presses 
with the ties and bagging, roUing out great bales, which are crowded 
into a sixth of their original size by the mighty elbows of the com- 
presses. Then there are the wagons, loaded bale upon bale, jogging 
along the road, the happy tenant driving, wife and children perched 
upon the bales, "goin' to trade." There are visions of cotton ex- 
changes, where gambling in futures runs high, and millions change 
hands every day; of huge vessels at the seaport and long freight cars 
in the inland, laden and groaning with the precious freight. 

Edward King, in "The Great South," gives us some interesting 
information about the status of negro labor on the great Mississippi 
plantations about 1875 — conditions which in some respects remain 
unchanged. He says: 

"Under the slave regime, the negroes working a arge plantation 
were all quartered at night in a kind of central group of huts, known 
as the 'quarters;' but it has been found an excellent idea to divide 
up the hundred or five hundred laborers among a number of these 
Httle villages, each located on the section of the plantation which they 
have leased. By this process-, commonly known as 'segregation of 
quarters,' many desirable results have been accomplished; the negro 
has been encouraged to devote some attention to his home, and been 



390 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 



hindered from the vices engendered by excessive crowding. On 
some plantations one may find a dozen squads, each working on a 
different plan, the planters, or land owners, hoping in this way to 
find out which system will be most advantageous to themselves and 
most binding on the negro. 

"Clairmont, a plantation of three thousand acres, of which one 
thousand are now cultivated, on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi 
river, opposite to Natchez, is cut up into lots of one hundred acres 
each, and on each division are ten laborers who have leased the land 

in various ways. It was 
amusing, by the way, to 
note the calculation that 
one negro made when 
negotiating for one of 
these tracts. He was to 
be allowed one-half, but 
was vociferous for one- 
tenth. As ten is more 
than two, he supposed a 
tenth to be more than a 
half. On this Clairmont, 
in i860, the owner raised 
1,000 bales of cotton and 
8,000 bushels of corn; 
now he raises about 500 
bales, and hardly any 
corn. 

"Still, the conduct of the laborers is encouraging. The Httle 
villages springing up here and there on the broad acres have a ten- 
dency to localize the negroes, who have heretofore been very much 
inclined to rove about, and each man is allowed to have half an acre 
of ground for his garden. The supplies spoken of as furnished the 
negroes are of the rudest description — pork, meal and molasses — 
all brought hundreds, nay, thousands of miles, when every one of 
the laborers could, with a little care, grow enough to feed himself and 
his family. 

" But the negro throughout the cptton belt takes little thought 
for the morrow. He works lazily, although, in some places, pretty 
steadily. In others he takes a day here and there out of the week 




A COTTON LEVEE 

Thousands of bales of cotton awaiting shipment at New Orleans. 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 391 

in such a manner as to render him almost useless. The planter 
always feels that the negro is irresponsible and must be taken care of. 
If he settles on a small tract of land of his own, as so many thousand 
do now-a-days, he becomes almost a cumberer of the ground, caring 
for nothing save a living, and raising only a bale of cotton or so 
wherewith to get 'supphes.' For the rest he can fish and hunt. He 
doesn't care to become a scientific farmer. Thrift has no charms 
for him. He has never been educated to care for himself; how 
should he suddenly leap forth, a new man, into the changed order 
of things ? 

"Nevertheless, some of the planters along the river near 
Natchez say: 'Give the negro his due. The merchant will ordinarily 
stand a better chance of collecting all his advance from fifty small 
black planters than from fifty whites of the same class, when the 
crop is successful.' But if the negro's crop fails, he feels very loath 
to pay up, although he may have the means. He seems to think 
the debt has become outlawed. In success he is generally certain 
to pay his store account, which is varied and comprehends a history 
of his progress during the year. 

" From the overseer's conversation I learned that cotton-picking 
is done quite as thoroughly under the system of free labor as in the 
days when slave-driving was permissible; but that the 'niggers' 
require constant watching. On many plantations where the yield 
is abundant, it is difficult to concentrate labor enough at the proper 
time to get the cotton into the gin-house the same year that it is 
planted. I have seen cotton fields still white with their creamy 
fleeces late in December, because the negroes were either too lazy 
or too busily engaged in their annual merry-makings to gather the 
harvest. But on the large lowland plantations along the Mississippi 
the crop is usually gathered early, and the picking is very thorough. 
I could not discover that there was any system of 'forced labor' now 
in use, and I thought the overseer's statement, that a 'good field- 
hand now-a-days would pick 250 pounds of cotton daily,' was 
excellent testimony in favor of free labor. He added, however, 
that on many plantations the average hands would not pick -4Tiore 
than 100 pounds per day. 

"The laborers were coming in from the field in a long pictu- 
resque procession. As it was spring-time many oi them had been 
ploughing, and were mounted upon the backs of the stout mules 



392 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 



which had been their companions all day. Some of the men were 
singing rude songs, others were shouting boisterously and scuffling 
as they went their way along the broad pathway bordered by giant 
cypresses and noble oaks. The boys tumbling and wriggling in the 
grass perpetually exploded into guffaws of contagious laughter. 
Many of the men were tall and finely formed. They had an intelli- 
gent look, and were evidently not so degraded as those born on the 
Louisiana lowlands. The overseer sat on the veranda of his house, 

now and then calling out a 
sharp command or a cau- 
tion, the negroes looking up 
obsequiously and touching 
their hats as they heard his 
voice. When the mules 
were stabled the men came 
lounging back to the cabins, 
where the women were pre- 
paring their homely supper, 
and an hour afterward we 
heard the tinkle of banjos, 
the pattering of feet and 
uproarious laughter. The 
interiors of the negro cabins 
were of the rudest descrip- 
tion. The wretched huts 
in which the workmen live 
seem to them quite com- 
fortable, however. I saw no 
one who appeared discontented with his surroundings. Few of these 
laborers could read at all. Even those who had some knowledge 
of the alphabet did not seem to be improving it." 

Cotton, as ordinarily considered, has a single significance only, 
that relating to the Hnt or fibre, which ranks among the world's 
most useful and valuable agricultural products. Yet in the economy 
of nature this fibre is of secondary importance, a mere side-issue as 
compared with the seed, the leading purpose in the fife of the plant. 
And of late years the seed has acquired a commercial value as well, 
as the source of immense quantities of valuable oil, which have gone 
far to take the place in cuHnary and table use of the favorite olive oil. 




COTTON PICKING IN ALABAMA 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 393 

This utility of the seed has been developed within the past 
thirty years. Formerly nearly the only use made of the seed was to 
return it to the soil as a fertilizer. For a century before efforts had 
been made from time to time to extract the oil profitably from the 
seed. In 1833 a large factory for the production of cotton-seed oil 
was established at Natchez, and others elsewhere m the South. But 
they did not prove a success and the business languished for years. 
It was not until 1855 that the machine necessary to success was 
invented. This is known as Knapp's decorticating machine, which 
separates the hulls from the kernels of the seeds, leaving the latter 
to be crushed for oil. After the Civil War, the new process came 
gradually into use, there being by 1885 about 100 mills in steady 
operation through the cotton belt. This number has since been 
greatly mcreased and the production of cotton-seed oil has grown 
into a very important industry. 

Estimating the cotton crop at 10,000,000 bales, the yield of seed, 
after saving the necessary seed for planting, would be about 4,000,000 
tons. This, if it were all manufactured into oil, meal cake and other 
products, should yield a value of about $125,000,000. The crushed 
seeds yield, on a commercial scale, twelve to eighteen per cent, of 
crude oil, of a dark reddish-brown color. This, when refined, 
yields eighty to eighty-five per cent, of a clear, limpid, light-yellow 
oil, without perceptible odor, and resembling the best olive-oil in 
flavor. It is largely used as a substitute for linseed, sperm, lard, 
almond, and olive oils, and in cooking as a substitute for lard or butter. 
It is said that it constitutes nine-tenths of the salad oil used in the 
United States. 

The oil is only one of the useful products of the seed. The 
"cake," which remains after pressing out the oil, is largely used as 
fodder for cattle. It is especially rich in nutritious matter and 
causes them to fatten rapidly and to produce very rich milk. A 
fine Hnt which cHngs to the seeds is removed by extra ginning, and 
makes an excellent paper. The hulls are burned as fuel, and the 
residue left after clarifying the oil is employed in soap making. 
Even this is not all. The stalks yield a fibre which is considered 
equal to jute m the manufacture of gunny and similar cloths. Thus 
the whole cotton plant is to-day utiHzed. 

These by-products are of such value that in many places in the 
South the cake and the hulls pay for the seed and the expense of 



394 Cotton the Snowy Monarch 

grinding, leaving the oil as clear profit. The planter even finds it 
profitable to haul his seed to the mill and haul back in payment the 
cake and the hulls, leaving the oil as toll to the crusher. 

As may be seen from the above statement, the cotton crop is of 
immense importance in the domestic economy of the United States, 
and especially of its Southern section. The plant which yields 
this white treasure of the Southland is a very dehcate one, and cannot 
be grown profitably except in a soil and climate adapted to its de- 
mands. It needs a country blessed with long, warm summers, and 
nowhere on the earth does it find itself more fully at home than in 
the states of the Gulf region and the Southern Atlantic slope. It is 
cultivated in many countries, and in much the same manner, but 
nowhere so skilfully and under such a perfect system as in our 
fertile American soil. 

The cotton plant is not an annual, strictly speaking, yet it is 
found to yield better by destroying the old stems every year, after 
the gathering of the crop, and sowing new seed for the next year's 
growth. The winter is the season of preparation. The ground is 
thoroughly plowed and, after the season of frost is surely over, is 
laid in rows from three to four feet wide, according to the quality of 
the soil. In the centre of these the seed is sown in straight furrows, 
or, as in some plantations, in holes from a foot to a foot and a half 
apart. This work begins in March and is continued through April, 
or into May if frosts come late. 

About eight or ten days after planting the young shoot peeps 
above the ground, and the work of cultivating begins, weeding and 
thinning being dihgently attended to. Early in June the time of 
blooming arrives, the fields now presenting a broad and showy 
display of yellow flowers at times verging to a purple tint. During 
this early life of the plant a warm steamy sort of weather, moisture 
in the soil from frequent rains, a hot sun and Httle wind, are best fitted 
for its development. But after the flowers have fallen warm dry 
weather is essential to arrest the growth of the stem and develop 
the boll. The picking time begins in August — occasionally in 
July — and continues till the frosts of late October or early November 
put an end to the growth of the plant. During this season all the 
hands of the plantation, young and old alike, find abundant occupa- 
tion in gatherign the fleecy bolls. With bags or baskets suspended 
from their sho- lers they rapidly pick the ripe heads, which are 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 



395 



then spread out to dry preliminary to being given over to the saw- 
teeth of the gins. It may be said here that the Sea-Island cotton is 
much more easily cleaned than the upland variety. In this the 
hard smooth seeds do not cling strongly to the Unt, as in the upland 




THE SPINNING ROOM OF A COTTON MILL 

Most of the children work in the spinning room tying threads together when they break, 

crop, and it is only necessary to pass the cotton through tv^o small 
rollers w^hich revolve in opposite directions and easily loosen and 
throw off the seeds. 

The modern methods of preparing the cotton product for market 



396 Cotton the Snowy Monarch 

are of interest, as compared with those of early date. The primi- 
tive saw gin was operated by hand and of necessity was exceed- 
ingly hmited in capacity. The first very substantial advancement, 
resulting from years of research, was the horse-power attachment 
for ginning and baling, which yielded the old fashioned cotton gin- 
nery and screw. The motive power for this ginnery consisted of 
two, four or more horses or mules. The cotton was hauled in 
wagons to the gin-house, unloaded by hand into bins, carried again 
by hand to a platform, and thence fed by hand into the gin. By 
the old fashioned ginnery and screw the lint cotton was blown by 
a brush from the saw gin into a Hnt room, where it was often 
allowed to accumulate, awaiting a rainy day or other opportune 
occasion for baling. It was then conveyed in baskets or sheets to 
the single press box of the old "wooden screw," which was located 
some 30 or 40 feet from the gin-house. There it was dumped into 
the box and trampled by foot until a sufficient quantity was inclosed 
to make a bale, the heaviest negroes on the plantation being chosen 
to do the pressing. By means of a horse at the lever or wing of the 
press the follow block, upon which the screw was pivoted, was forced 
down or up, as the case might be, until the desired bale density was 
attained. Jute bagging was generally used as a wrapping, and 
the shape of the bale was preserved, at first by the use of rope, and 
later by means of iron bands, called "ties." 

A few of these "landmarks" are yet found throughout the 
country. It is scarcely necessary to say that this old method of 
handling cotton at the gin was exceedingly laborious, wasteful, and 
unhealthful, and that nothing but cheap labor and high prices for the 
staple allowed it to continue as long as it did. Much time, labor, 
and money have been expended in efforts to combine ginning and 
baling plants, to the end that greater speed might be gained, labor 
economized, and other desired reforms attained in handling seed 
cotton. The outcome is automatic ginneries, practically doing 
away with labor, and yielding from five to ten times as much lint 
cotton per day as was possible by the earfier processes. 

Many inventions have been made to increase the compactness 
of pressing the fibre into bales. Of these there are only two in practi- 
cal operation, the Bessonette or Round Lap system and the Lowry 
system. In the first the cotton is wound round a cone under a 
gradually increasing pressure, the bale produced being round instead 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 397 

of square as in the old system, and with a density of 35 pounds per 
cubic foot instead of 22.5 pounds as in the old square bale. The 
Lowry is also a round bale system, working on a different principle, 
and yielding a density of about 45 pounds per cubic foot. These 
bales are 18 inches in diameter and 36 inches long, and average only 
250 pounds "n weight instead of 500 pounds as in the old system. 

The fluctuations in the growth of cotton in the different states 
is a matter of interest. In 1800, when the industry was in its infancy, 
cotton culture was confined to five states. South Carolina producing 
nearly the total, followed in succession by Georgia, Virginia, North 
Carolina and Tennessee. In 1820 South Carolina and Georgia 
produced about half the crop, and Alabama, Mississippi and Louisi- 
ana had entered the field. In 1840 Mississippi had taken the lead, 
and in i860 was far in advance, with Alabama and Louisiana follow- 
ing. Arkansas and Texas now appeared as large growers. In 1880 
Mississippi regained her advantage, though closely pressed by 
Georgia, while Texas had advanced nearly to the same level. In 
the years that followed Texas took the lead and advanced with 
remarkable rapidity, until in 1900, of the total product of 10,425,000 
bales, Texas stood for 3,550,000, or more than one-third of the whole, 
while Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi were close together, with 
something over 1,000,000 bales each. Texas, indeed, is the marvel 
of the cotton belt. No other state rivals it in its rapid growth. Yet 
nearly 90 per cent, of its great product in 1900 was grown in 75 
of its 246 counties, and not more than a third of the area adapted 
to cotton was under cultivation. This great state, therefore, is 
readily capable of yielding 10,000,000 bales. 

Where does all the vast weight of cotton go, and for what is it 
used ^ Mr. J. L. Watkins, of the Census Bureau, gives us some 
useful information on this point: 

"Since 1870 the increased consumption on the Continent, in the 
United States, and in India has been enormous. It has also been 
very large in Great Britain, though much less than in the United 
States and Germany. Indeed, the United States is now the largest 
cotton-consuming country in the world, having in 1898 taken the lead 
from Great Britain, which had held the supremacy in the cotton 
industry for over a century. Undoubtedly this expansion could 
never have taken place (outside of India) except for the contin- 
ually increasing crops of the Southern States. We are supply- 



398 Cotton the Snowy Monarch 

ing the world with more than 85 per cent of the cotton it manufac- 
tures into clothing, and Mr. Ellison declared some years ago, 
when our crops were very much smaller than now, that the cotton 
crops of the United States provide the raw material for more than 
half the calico used by the entire human race, from which he inferred 
that there was a great deal more nakedness in the world prior to the 
development of the cotton industry in the South than there is at the 
present time. Mr. Wu Ting-fang, the recent Chinese minister to this 
country, in an interview stated that until within the past few years 
his people made all the material for their own shirts, but, owing to the 
cleverness of American manufacturers, China was being supplied 
with shirt stuffs superior to its own. Consequently, these goods have 
crowded out those of China, and not only do the well-to-do, but the 
poor also, wear American shirtings, and no matter how far you travel 
into the interior, you will see natives, who never laid eyes on a for- 
eigner, clad in shirting from the United States." 

As concerns our trade in raw cotton, the most surprising develop- 
ment has taken place in the Far East. In 1870 we did not ship a 
pound of cotton to that part of the world, but since then Japan has 
made such progress in cotton manufacture that in 1900 it drew on the 
fields of the South to the extent of over 323,000 bales. East India 
and China have also come into the market for this product of 
the American soil. 

Mr. Watkins further remarks that "The consumption of 
cotton has increased so greatly within the past quarter of a century 
that there would appear to be no limit to its future possibiHties, 
It is estimated that of the world's population of 1,500,000,000, 
about 500,000,000 regularly wear clothes, about 750,000,000, are 
partially clothed, and 250,000,000 habitually go almost naked, 
and that to clothe the entire population of the world would require 
42,000,000 bales of 500 pounds each. It therefore seems more 
than likely that the cotton industry will go on expanding until the 
whole of the inhabited earth is clothed with the products of its looms. 
This is not an unreasonable conclusion when we consider the fact 
that cotton is the cheapest material for clothing known to man. In 
the meantime it may come to pass that the world's area suitable for 
cotton culture may have to be seriously reckoned with, just as was. 
the case during the Civil War." 

During this war every effort was made by the English spinners 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 399 

to foster the growth of cotton in Egypt, India, and other parts of the 
world, and with some success, in consequence of the high prices 
then ruHng, but when the war ended and prices fell back to their old 
level, the effort to compete with the fields of our Southern states 
proved a failure, Egypt alone increasing her supply. As a result, 
the cotton spinners of the world are more than ever dependent upon 
the planters of the United States for their raw material. 

We have now another story to tell, of great interest in this con- 
nection, namely, that one of the important facts in the industrial 
growth of the United States is the development of the cotton mill on 
its soil, and one of the leading facts in the recent history of the South 
is the extraordinary growth of cotton manufacture in that section 
of the great republic. The cotton mill has at length made its way 
to the place where the cotton is grown, and it has evidently come there 
to stay. 

The manufacture of cotton goods began in America in a small 
way about the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its progress 
was slow and it was long confined to New England and the Middle 
States. As the years went on American competition began to make 
itself more and more severely felt by the spinners of Great Britain, 
until in 1898, for the first time in its history, we find the mills of the 
United States consuming more cotton than those of the mother land. 
In 1901-02 the United States left Great Britain in the rear to the 
extent of 800,000 bales. 

But meanwhile a new fact in the history of cotton-weaving had 
appeared. The competition which had long existed between the 
Old World and the New, now made itself felt between the North 
and the South, and the spinners of New England saw with growing 
alarm their great industry beginning to slip out of their hands and 
into those of the enterprising sons of the South. This is a fact of 
such far-reaching importance that we must give it some extended 
attention. We cannot do better than to quote from Edward Stan- 
wood's contribution to the census reports on the subject of cotton 
manufacture. 

"Speaking broadly, the cotton manufacturing industry did 
not exist in the South before the Civil War, and it existed only on the 
most restricted scale before 1880. There are now single establish- 
ments in Massachusetts which pay annually a larger sum in wages 
than the entire cost of labor in Southern cotton mills in 1880. The 



400 



Cotton the Snowy Monarch 



mills were small, equipped with antiquated machinery, engaged in 
spmning the coarsest numbers only, and in producing from cotton 
grown in the neighborhood the stout fabrics used for clothing by the 
negroes. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that prior to 
1880 there was not a mill south of the latitude of Washinp-ton that 

O 

would be classed as an efficient modern cotton factory, even accord- 
ing to the standard of that time. Before the Civil War the people of 
the South were almost exclusively engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
The ruling classes looked with disfavor upon manufactures and 

discouraged the introduc- 
tion of the industrial arts 
save as they were neces- 
sary to meet local wants. 
"After the war closed 
it was some years before 
people had recovered 
sufficiently from the dis- 
aster to undertake manu- 
facturing. There had 
been attempts in the 
direction of cotton spin- 
ning and weaving before 
1880, but the cotton ex- 
position in Atlanta, in 
^„ 1 88 1, gave the industry 

THE WARP ROOM IN A COTTON MILL . ' ^ 1 • 1 • i 

an impetus which it has 

never since lost. The possibiHties of the region were shown 
when the governor of Georgia appeared at the fair dressed in 
a suit of clothes made of cottonade manufactured on the grounds 
irom cotton which had been picked from the stalk on the 
morning of the same day, in the sight of the visitors to the fair. 
That the local product of cotton could be worked up into finished 
cloth without transportation to a distant manufacturing town, 
together with the fact that the region had abundance of unem- 
ployed labor of a class similar to that which in the early days 
operated the mills of Waltham, Lowell, and Manchester, brought 
before the people the vision of a new source of individual and pubHc 
wealth to which they had previously been blind. 

"Once the opportunity had been presented to them the chance 




Cotton the Snowy Monarch 4^^ 

was eagerly seized, and all who were able to do so contributed to 
make the new enterprise successful. The press urged it upon those 
who had capital to invest, hailed joyfully every manufacturing proj- 
ect, and made much of every successful establishment. Municipal 
aid was given in the shape of exemption from taxation for a term 
of years. The railroads favored the scheme by arranging their 
freight schedules so as to encourage Southern manufacturers. The 
factories first established under the new regime showed large profits, 
and thus attracted more capital to the new industry. The advantage 
of the Southern country for cotton manufacturing began to attract 
attention in the North; and in many cases corporations already 
established increased their capital and built new mills in the South 
Atlantic states. 

"The earliest Southern enterprises were not in all cases begun 
as first-class establishments. Some of them were equipped with 
discarded machinery from Northern mills. But the manufacturers 
quickly learned the lesson that there is no industry in which profits 
are more directly proportioned to the perfection and speed of the 
machinery than in the spinning and weaving of cotton; and the 
old spindles and looms were speedily replaced with others of the 
newest pattern. A great proportion of the mills built and started 
within late years have been thoroughly up to date in all respects. In 
fact some improvements in mill construction are to be found in that 
section which are not yet introduced in the manufacturing regions 
of the North. Thus the first factory operated wholly by electricity, 
without shafting or belts, was located in the South. By the use of 
electrical power it is possible to place the mill on high ground at a 
suitable distance from mill race and water wheel, and thus to secure 
accessibility, the health of operatives, and other benefits which 
could not be enjoyed when it was necessary to put the foundations 
of the mill below the foot of the waterfall. 

"For the most part the product of Southern mills has been 
coarse or medium goods, as is usually the case in the early stages 
of the industry. But not a few mills have been constructed to make 
yarns of the higher medium numbers and cloth which approaches 
the lower limit of those classed as fine. A considerable part of the 
product of the region is exported. The industry is now important 
enough in the four states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Alabama to consume nearly one-third of the crop of cotton 

26 



402 Cotton the Snowy Monarch 

grown in those states; and both North Carolina and South Carolina 
spin more than half the cotton grown within their Hmits. It is 
also becoming of importance in the other cotton states." 

We have here a highly encouraging exhibit of the present con- 
dition of cotton manufacture in the South. When we consider that 
it is still in its infanc}^, and take into account the advantages of 
weaving the fibre in the immediate vicinity of the fields in which it is 
grown, we can readily see a brilliant promise for the future growth 
of this new Southern industry, and its probable disastrous effect 
on the cotton mills of the North. There are other elements in the 
problem, it is true, and it is never wise to predict, but that the 
South will remain an active and able competitor in this industry 
is already assured. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE OF 

THE FARMING INDUSTRY IN 

THE SOUTH 

The South a land of many products — A glimpse at its products — An economic regula- 
tion — The negro as a farm holder — Corn and tobacco — The story of rice culture — 
Rice in Louisiana and Texas — The Louisiana sugar — The peanut crop — What 
the South has done and can do — Phosphates — Fruit and vegetable raising — The 
peach of the South — The melon and strawberry — The Florida orange and 
pineapple — Cattle raising in Texas — The blue grass region of Kentucky and its 
thoroughbred horses — The blooded stock of Tennessee — Secretary Wilson on 
Southern agriculture. 

THE sentiment has long been entertained that the South is 
preeminently a land of cotton, upon which barely enough 
food is grown to feed the laborers in the cotton field. This 
sentiment was long a true one, at least as regarded the more souther- 
ly range of states. And it is true in a measure to-day, for more land 
is devoted to cotton than ever and the vast yield of more than 10,000, 
000 bales is yearly harvested. But it must be borne in mind that the 
South is imperial in its dimensions, and quite capable, while supply- 
ing the world with cotton, of producing a superabundance of the 
other treasures of the field. Certainly it is no longer solely a land 
of cotton. It is as well a land of corn, a land of cattle, a land of 
forests, a land of tobacco, a land of fruits and flowers, a land brim- 
ming with possibilities, and capable of feeding the population of the 
Union without taking an acre from the area of the cotton fields. 

There have been vast and radical changes in Southern agricul- 
ture since the end of the era of slavery. The old plantation, vast 
in extent, peopled by great colonies of negroes, consisting mainly of 
cotton and corn fields and virgin forest, has ceased to exist. The 
land has been broken up into farms of much smaller dimensions, 
diversified agriculture has been introduced, and the art of farming 

403 



404 Farming Industry in the South 

in its fullest sense is rapidly making its way. We cannot present 
the case better than in the words of Mr. B. F. Clayton, of Indianola, 
Iowa, a gentleman of Southern birth, and a member of the National 
Farmers' Congress, held at Macon, Georgia, in 1902. He says 
in reply to a letter from the editor of the Southern Farm Magazine: 

"I take pleasure in responding to your request as to the South 
being an agricultural field. In doing so I Vv^ould prefer to treat it as 
the Old and the New South. The Old South was almost exclusively 
agricultural. Kentucky and Tennessee furnished its cotton belt 
with mules, horses and the principal part of the provisions prior to 
the development of the great Northwest. In the South cotton was 
considered 'King,' and was the great staple crop. 

"Conscientiously believing in the divine right of slavery, upon 
that institution was erected a magnificent aristocracy that became a 
social and political factor that dominated this government for the 
first eighty-five years of its existence. It was slave labor that leveled 
the forest, plowed the ground, and planted the seed, and the rich, 
new soil responded with tremendous crops. There was no continent 
or island of the sea that could compete with the South in its product. 
The world's price was practically fixed by the Southern planters, 
and they grew immensely wealthy from the cotton crop raised by 
slave labor. They had no time and less inclination to develop 
diversified farming. Why should they .? There was nothing that 
could take the place of the cotton plant as a money-maker. Manu- 
facturing and industrial pursuits in general were neglected, and 
everything was swallowed up in the mad passion for more cotton. 
Under this old regime the white population know but little of 
mechanism and of other industrial pursuits. Manual labor was 
degrading; the white laborer was considered the 'mudsill of society;' 
labor was not held in that high regard with which it is met in this 
age. While it might become a serious problem for the planter 
inheriting a large slave property to keep the wolf from the door of 
his home and his slave quarters, yet he seldom failed to maintain the 
character of a Southern gentleman and to dispense that elegant 
hospitahty that belongs to no continent or people to the extent 
practiced by the people in the 'Land of Dixie.' 

"As the result of the Civil War, slavery, the foundation of this 
social and poUtical splendor, was swept away in a conflict fought to 
the bitter end. Thus ended the 'Old South. ' 



Farming Industry in the South 405 

"When the Confederate soldier returned to his home he was 
confronted with desperate conditions and with new problems. 
Much of his property had been destroyed or confiscated during the 
ravages of war. Devastation and black despair covered his fair 
Southland. Socially, politically and financially he was a bankrupt. 
His environment would have discouraged a less energetic and pro- 
gressive people. The New South had to be organized in the face 
of difficulties seldom met with in the world's history. The enfran- 
chisement of the black race made them the lawful equal of the former 
master, without the sHghtest comprehension of the duties of a free- 
man. In the very nature of things the black could have no know- 
ledge of the duties and the responsibilities of citizenship. The 
greatest problem was to teach him how to care for himself, and that 
citizenship and freedom meant that he must earn his bread by the 
sweat of his brow; that prosperity came through industry, economy 
and frugaHty. 

"The restoration of peace found the Southern farmer a financial 
wreck, flat on his back, not knowing how or where to begin. Accept- 
ing the conditions before him, and steeling himself to his environ- 
ment, he rose and began anew the battle of life. Having faith in his 
fair land, he reorganized the South. In doing so he seized upon 
every natural resource. He started on a new road of diversified 
farming. Agriculture, horticulture and stockraising, all the diversi- 
fied blending of these industries, became his occupation. All kinds 
of vegetables and fruits were planted, and step by step he began 
again. He digs in the forgotten gold mines of North Carolina; he 
utilizes the forests of Georgia ; he goes down into the earth and brings 
up the iron ore of Alabama; he forces the earth to yield up its coal, 
by which he warms his people and fires the furnace of the factory; 
he starts the music of the trip-hammerand the spindle of the factory, 
whose smoke darkens every sky; he raises cotton and wool, and 
manufactures it into cloth for the use of his own people; he presses 
the cotton-seed, and its product brings to him enormous wealth; 
he sells the hulls, and it makes splendid fodder; he furnishes New 
York with the first melons of the season at fabulous prices, and 
Boston with its fruits, from which he reahzes ^loo per acre plus the 
cost of production; he starts North with his early vegetables and 
small fruits, and brings home milHons of dollars, while his family 
is conducting a successful family dairy on pea vines." 



4o6 Farming Industry in the South 

We have here an inteUigent and just review of the situation. 
It cannot indeed be said that the problem has been fully solved. 
It is not the work of a day or a year to revolutionize the economic 
conditions of a great community. But such a revolution is in rapid 
process of accomplishment. Diversified agriculture, the restoration 
of the worn-out lands by fertihzation, the use of modern farm imple- 
ments, intelUgent attention to the demands of soil, cHmate and 
markets, all these are making their way with rapidity and promise, — 
many of the intelligent blacks aiding the whites in the work of 
regeneration, — and as a result of this enterprise and well-directed 
industry the South sees before it an assured prosperity for the future. 

The progress thus brightly indicated is not so absolutely depen- 
dent upon negro labor as many assume. "If the negro should 
ever abandon the Southern corn, cotton, rice, and sugar fields — and 
this is conceivable to some extent should the number and the pestif- 
erous activity of his false prophets increase — the Southern white man 
would succeed him. It is a mistake to suppose that white men 
cannot do field work under the suns of South Carolina, Alabama, 
Georgia, Louisiana, and Southern Texas. Millions of white men, 
either natives of the South or acclimated immigrants from the North, 
are sowing, plowing and harvesting there to day, and what is more 
they enjoy excellent health and make good livings out of their industry. 
More than three-fifths of the cotton crop is planted, cultivated, and 
gathered by white labor. The Acadians of Louisiana can raise 
corn and rice quite as well as their colored brethren. They will 
keep the negro as long as they can, but should his false advisers lure 
him away in search of city life and political office, they will turn to 
white laborers — and Americans at that — as the best alternative. 
But the need of such a condition of affairs as this is certainly not 
probable in the near future." 

In fact, the statistics of the census of 1900 lead us to a very 
different conclusion, in their statements regarding the number of 
negroes who are engaged in farming in their own account, either 
as owners or tenants of farms. The progress in this direction has 
been immense since the era of emancipation, and it is certainly a 
matter of interest to find that in several of the States more than half 
the farms are in negro hands. Thus in Louisiana 50 per cent, in 
South Carolina 55 per cent, and in Mississippi 58 per cent of the 
farms are estimated to be held by men of the negro race. Negro 



Farming Industry in the South 407 

land-holding is indicated in Alabama to the extent of 42 per cent, of 
the farms, and in several other States the colored holders range from 
a third to a fourth of the whole number. But the above statement 
does not accurately indicate the true situation, as the farms held by 
negroes are on an average much smaller than those of the whites. 
Their product also is at a lower level, indicating much less in- 
dustry or intelHgence in their labor. But taken as a whole, the 
showing here given is a very suggestive one as to the economical 
future of the negro race. The development of the negro as an 
independent land-holder is no doubt due in considerable measure to 
the industrial education of the colored race, which has been so 
actively and wisely pursued in the Tuskegee and similar institutions, 
and adds to the strength of the growing conviction that the true 
advancement of the race in the future must be largely dependent 
upon education of this character. 

Cotton, as above said, is holding its own in the South in spite 
of the new diversity of agriculture. So are the other great staples 
of the past, tobacco, sugar, rice, and corn. Corn, the great American 
grain, whose annual yield vastly exceeds that of all the other grains 
combined, has for centuries been the great food staple of the South. 
It is the one grain native to America, and to-day fully three-fourths 
of the total maize product of the world is grown in the United States. 
Of the 2,100,000,000 bushels harvested in 1900 more than one-third 
was produced in the Southern States, and was probably consumed 
there as an article of food in a much larger proportion than elsewhere. 
The famous "hog and hommy" have long been the favorite food 
staple of the negroes of the South. 

Another great crop of the South is tobacco, a plant of native 
American origin which has proved as useful for the solace of man- 
kind as maize has for his sustenance. Since the days when it was 
first planted by John Rolfe in Virginia, and was used as money and 
exchanged by the early immigrants for wives, it has been one of the 
chief products of Southern fields, at least of those north of the cotton 
belt. From the first it has been an article of export, and continues so 
to this day, though the world's supply now comes from many 
locahties beyond the Hmits of the South, ahke in the Northern States 
and in distant lands and isles. Yet despite this extension, tobacco 
continues a great staple of Southern industry, replacing cotton m 
those states to which the white fibre is ill-adapted, such as Kentucky 



4o8 



Farming Industry in the South 



and Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Virginia, 
upon whose soil the culture of tobacco began, remained the leading 
tobacco grower till 1870, when Kentucky came to the front as the 
greatest producer of the "weed." By 1900 Kentucky had forged 
enormously ahead of all others, its crops amounting to 314,288,050 
pounds, or 36.2 per cent of the total yield of the United States. At 
a later date than Kentucky, North CaroHna also forged ahead of 
the "Old Dominion," and in 1900 had a showing of 127,503,400 
pounds, as compared with Virginia's output of 122,884,900 pounds. 




f^ f. tC »-'-'TgaSj|BiAgi 



AN OLD-TIME FORM OF THE TOBACCO FACTORY 

Tennessee stood in 1900 fourth in the Southern rank, with a yield of 
49,157,500 pounds, these four States yielded 70 per cent of the 
total production of the country. The growth of tobacco has 
increased enormously in the United States since 1850, when the 
yield was about one-fourth its present amount, and the demand 
for it grows with its growth. 

Of two products of the United States confined in this country 
to the South, rice and cane-sugar, the former is among the early 
agricultural experiments of the country. This highly valuable grain, 



Farming Industry in the South 409 

little as it is eaten in the North Temperate Zone, forms the favorite 
provender of the tropics, and serves as the principal foo.d supply of 
one-half the human race, no other cereal being nearly so widely 
used. In 1693, as v^e have elsewhere stated, the Governor of South 
Carolina was given a small bag of rice by the captain of a vessel from 
Madagascar, who put into the port of Charleston. This the gover- 
nor planted as an experiment, and found it to grow so luxuriantly 
that its culture soon began on an extensive scale, a large population 
settling about Charleston and engaging in this new industry. Rice 
is a plant that demands an abundance of water. There is, 
it is true, an upland rice grown in some tropical lands, but the 
American growth is mainly of the lowland variety, and to it the 
swamp regions of the Carolina and Georgia coast lands proved 
excellently adapted. The introduction of cotton did not check the 
rice culture in the Carolinas, and it continued to be grown in large 
quantities to the period of the Civil War. 

For nearly two centuries after the introduction of rice South 
Carolina and Georgia were the chief growers. For fifteen years 
prior to 1861 the annual production of rice in North CaroHna, 
South Carolina, and Georgia averaged more than 105,000,000 
pounds of cleaned rice. Of this South Carolina produced more than 
three-fourths. But the industry in these states was wrecked by the 
war, and changed labor conditions, lack of necessary capital, and 
other causes had since prevented its full restoration. From 1866 
to 1880, inclusive, the annual production of the three States averaged 
a little less than 41,000,000 pounds, of which South Carolina pro- 
duced more than one-half. Since 1880 their average annual produc- 
tion has been, in round numbers, 46,000,000 pounds of cleaned rice, 
of which North CaroHna produced 5,500,000, South Carolina 
27,000,000, and Georgia 13,500,000 pounds. 

Coincident with the breaking out of the civil war began the 
development of the rice industry in Louisiana. For a number of 
years the product was small, but during the seventies the industry 
began to assume large proportions, averaging nearly 30,000,000 
pounds annually for the decade and exceeding 51,000,000 pounds in 
1880. In 1885 the production of Louisiana reached 100,000,000 
pounds, and in 1892 182,000,000 pounds; but these were years of 
exceptionally large crops. The average crop of the state since 1880 
has been, in round numbers, 86,000,000 pounds of cleaned rice. 



4IO 



Farming Industry in the South 



The great development of the rice industry in Louisiana since 
1884 has resulted from the opening up of a prairie region in the 
southwestern part of the state, and the development of a system of 
irrigation and culture which made possible the use of harvesting 
machinery similar to that used in the wheat fields of the Northwest, 
thereby greatly lessening the cost of production. In 1896, however, 
a new difficulty began to be heavily felt. The varieties of rice which 
yielded best and were otherwise most satisfactory from a cultural 
standpoint under the new system, proved inferior commercially 





A modern building replacing the factory represented on page 408, and showing 
the remarkable progress made in this industry within recent years. 

because the percentage of grains broken in the process of milling 
was very large, and the proportion of "head rice," made up of the 
unbroken grains, was low. As the Japanese rices possess superior 
milling quaUties, yielding a high percentage of head rice, it was 
desirable that they should be experimented with in this country, and 
with this idea in view the Department of Agriculture, in the spring of 
1899, imported from Japan about ten tons of Kiushu rice, which was 
distributed to experimenters in southwestern Louisiana, and else- 
where in the rice belt. This proved so successful that more than 
100 tons of the seed rice were imported in 1900. 



Farming Industry in the South 411 

The rice area soon spread from Louisiana into the lowlands 
of Southwestern Texas, which proved equally adapted to it. The 
land suited to the culture was the great Southern prairie which 
extends along the coast for about 140 miles from the parish of St. 
Mary in Louisiana to the Texas line and in Texas extends over a 
similar belt of prairies, stretching from the Saline River for a hundred 
miles or more along the coast. Large farms have been opened 
here, which produce this cereal abundantly, and during the decade 
ending in 1900 these two States increased their rice area to such an 
extent that they now produce nearly three-fourths of all the rice 
grown in the country. Irrigation is effected partly by the use of 
canals and partly from artesian wells, it having been found that 
south-western Louisiana yields artesian water in great abundance. 
Upland rice is grown to some small extent, but the chief attention is 
given to the lowland variety. 

The present production of rice in the United States, nearly 
400,000,000 pounds, supplies only about one-half the consumption, 
there being as much imported as grown. In view of this demand 
the outlook for the further extension of the industry in this country 
is very promising. According to the best estimates there are about 
10,000,000 acres of land in the five States bordering the Gulf of 
Mexico well suited to rice cultivation. The amount which maybe 
successfully irrigated by present methods, using the available surface 
and artesian flows, does not exceed 3,000,000 acres. The balance 
of the land could probably be brought into cultivation were it neces- 
sary, but the cost would, perhaps, be prohibitive at present prices. 
Three million acres is a conservative estimate of the area which 
can be successfully irrigated. The best results require rotation of 
crops; consequently only one-half of that amount, or 1,500,000 
acres, would be in rice at any one time. At an average yield of 10 
barrels (of 162 pounds) per acre, 1,500,000 acres of rice would 
produce nearly 2,500,000,000 pounds of cleaned rice, about six 
times the amount of our present production. There is no satis- 
factory reason why the United States should not grow all the rice it 
needs and become an exporter of this useful cereal. 

The other special product named, that of cane sugar, has been 
almost wholly confined to Louisiana. The first cane seed was sent 
thither in 1751 by the Jesuits of Hispaniola, and planted and culti- 
vated by the Jesuits of New Orleans, There was little success in its 



412 Farming Industry in the South 

culture until after 1800, and the crop rarely exceeded 100,000 hogs- 
heads until after 1840, while the highest amount produced before 
the Civil War was 459,000 hogsheads in 1861. At the end of the war 
the industry had practically vanished, and its subsequent restoration 
was very gradual. The Louisiana cane-fields are on the northern 
edge of the region of possible culture, and the occasional inroad of 
frost rendered the industry a precarious one, in view of the sharp 
competition of the cheaply made Cuban sugar, and the rapidly 
increasing crop of beet sugar. The Louisiana sugar industry took 
a start upward when the troubles in Cuba from 1869 to 1879 
largely cut off the importations from that island, and the United 
States government fostered the culture in this country by a system of 
bounties. These remained in force until 1894, in which year Louis- 
iana gave us 600,000,000 pounds of sugar, on which a bounty of 
^10,000,000 was paid. In 1901-02 the output was about 800,000,000 
pounds and it still remains at nearly this figure. 

There is another crop which, Hke cotton, sugar and rice, is 
confined to the South, or practically so, at least, 99 per cent of it 
being grown there. It, therefore, while of no great economic 
importance, is worthy of mention from the fact stated. This is the 
peanut crop. These nuts are grown in nearly every state of the 
South and yield an annual total of about 12,000,000 bushels. While 
not precisely nuts, being the product of a pod like the bean, they 
have a nut-like flavor, and are very popular from their cheapness and 
pleasant taste. They yield a very sweet oil, and are grown to 
some extent for its production. 

We have dealt here with the principal farm crops which are 
peculiar to the South, and with tobacco and corn, which have also a 
large growth in the North. It may be of interest at this point to 
introduce a few figures. In the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 the 
population of the South increased 44 per cent. In the same period 
the value of the farms of the South increased from nearly ^2,300,000,- 
000 to nearly ^4,000,000,000, while the value of their products 
nearly doubled. Of the leading grains, the value of the annual 
crop in 1900 was, corn, ^233,445,552; wheat, $47,432,730; oats, 
$15,764,739. In wheat and oats the South fell far below the total 
product of the country, and the only other farm product in which it 
reached a high percentage was sweet potatoes, valued at $16,706,- 
635, being 84 per cent of the total United States yields. 



Farming Industry in the South 413 

These figures make it evident that the South has scarcely given 
a hint of its capabihties in agriculture, even as far as general food 
crops are concerned. It has not touched its hmits as to crops 
pecuharly its own, and it has vast opportunities in crops with which 
it has comparatively made only a beginning, such as barley, rye, 
buckwheat, broom-corn, sugar-beets, grapes, nuts and nursery 
products, to say nothing of additional tropical plants. It dominates 
in cotton growing, tobacco raising and rice culture, and it has demon- 
strated its ability to raise practically every crop that may be grown 
in this country. 

In the phosphate beds of South Carolina, Florida and some other 
states the South has a great promise of future agricultural prosperity. 
This is pointed out by Col. J. P. KiUigrew, in a letter to the Manu- 
facturer s Record. He says: 

"The phosphate discoveries of the South are the marvels of 
science. There are three distinct fields, each one representing a 
diflFerent geological formation. The quantity is practically inex- 
haustible for a century to come. The influence of this industry upon 
Southern agriculture is far-reaching and is destined to be permanent. 
It will make a great deal of land valuable that is now valueless; it 
will transform many an old gullied field into fields of profit; it will 
multiply and diversify all the crops now grown in the Southern 
States; it will enable the farmers to put their crops into market at an 
earlier date. Already many experiments have been made with the 
acid phosphate upon the wheat fields of Tennessee, with the result 
that many old farms where four or five bushels of wheat per acre 
were formerly produced are now making twenty to twenty-five. It 
is safe to estimate that by the appHcation of 200 to 250 pounds of 
acid phosphate to the acre upon wheat fields, taking a series of years, 
the yield will be increased 50 per cent. It is hard to estimate how 
great will be the increased value of farms when these phosphates are 
manufactured and used as they should be by the wheat-growers of the 
Southern States. In my opinion, Kentucky, Tennessee, North 
Georgia, North Alabama, North Mississippi and Arkansas are des- 
tined to become, through the influence of these phosphates, one of 
the most productive wheat areas in the world. It will not be a sur- 
prise to me if the census of 1910 does not show the production of 
wheat for the State of Tennessee to equal that of the best wheat- 
growing States in the Northwest. I have seen so many instances of 



414 Farming Industry in the South 

the excellent results derived by the application of these fertilizers 
that I cannot doubt the final result upon the wheat crops of the 
Middle South. Again, the tobacco interests will be largely in- 
creased through the same agency." 

In addition to the large farm and plantation crops, the Southern 
agriculturist has found it greatly to his advantage of recent years to 
devote much attention to what we may designate as orchard and 
garden crops, the fruits and vegetables to which the soil and climate 
of the South are so admirably adapted and for which there is a large 
and growing market in the North and West. It is not that the 
latter sections cannot grow for themselves these toothsome products 
of the soil in abundance, but that they ripen so much earlier under 
the warm spring suns of the South as to lengthen their season from 
weeks to months, while the rapid and plentiful railroad service 
enables the Southern grower to lay the ripe fruits of his orchard and 
the palatable produce of his fields at the door of his Northern 
customer in full perfection and in all its freshness of odor and flavor. 
And in addition to the table plants common to the whole land, are 
those tropical growths which only the South can yield, the orange, 
the pineapple, and other juicy fruits, which can be laid down in 
Northern markets almost as cheaply as they are sold in the cities 
near which they are grown. 

Fruit raising as a vocation was hardly known in the South until 
after the Civil War. It would have been beneath the dignity of the 
" fine old Southern gentleman " to part with his orchard delicacies for 
money. The best his land could produce belonged always to his 
family, his friends, and the chance stranger within his gates. But 
when the civil strife was over, and his occupation gone, he wisely 
turned to the products of the rich soil for his livelihood, and to-day 
we find an abundance of our best and most prohfic fruits grown in 
the South, being largely raised for early Northern markets. 

Fruit growers remember the wave of fruit culture which, be- 
ginning in Delaware, swept southward, through Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, the Carolinas, and all the states warmed by the Gulf Stream. 
Prominent among the fruits thus cultivated is the peach, which, be- 
ginning with Georgia, ripens in succession northwardly, until by the 
time it is ready for sale from the orchards of the Middle States the 
market has for several months been fully suppHed with the juicy 
peach of the South. Of the states devoted to the peach Georgia 



Farming Industry in the South 



415 



stands in the first rank. Georgia, indeed, from the mountains to 
the sea, is an ideal orchard state. Fruits of all kinds thrive and 
flourish there, but supreme among them is the peach, a fruit which 
for its beauty of color, its dehcious scent, its nectar-Hke flavor, is 
amply worthy the verses of the poet. Some twenty or fifteen years 
ago this favorite of the Southern orchard began to make its way 
into Northern markets, and year by year the shipments have in- 
creased and the peach 
fields widened, until to- 
day Georgia has become 
the greatest peach-grow- 
ing stare in the Union. In 
1896 its crop amounted 
to 6,500,000 baskets, and . 
this splendid yield has 
since been largely in- 
creased. The peach belt, 
beginning about forty 
miles below Atlanta, ex- 
tends to Fort Valley and 
Columbus, a distance of 
150 miles in length by 
from ten to thirty miles 
in width. Here there are 
millions of peach trees, 
while the growth of this 
most luscious of the fruits 
of the temperate zone has 
spread to many other 
parts of the South. 
The pear, while not finding so large a market in the North, is 
grown to a considerable extent in the South. While Cahfornia 
produces more pears than any other state, and the California pear 
has no rival in the regard in which it is popularly held, the Southern 
states, particularly Texas, have experimented with the fruit and 
produced fine varieties. The objection to planting pear-trees com- 
monly made, that one must wait so long for any returns, is met by 
the fact that the demand for fine pears, as for all high-class native 
fruit, is constantly increasing. A large capital is not necessary to 




A PINEAPPLE PLANTATION, AT PALM 

BEACH, FLORIDA 

The pineapple industry is a recent addition to the 

splendid agricultural wealth of Florida. 



4i6 Farming Industry in the South 

insure success in this branch of the fruit industry. The grower 
needs only to avail himself of the experiences of others in regard to 
the best soil, best methods of producing, and best varieties for 
cultivation. 

Among other fruits which seek an early Northern market the 
melon deserves a prominent place. It is grown in vast abundance 
in the Gulf States, and while largely consumed at home, especially 
by the darkey, to whom a ripe and jucy watermelon is a foretaste of 
celestial bliss, hundreds of train loads are sent north every year, 
taken from the fields and deHvered in Northern cities while still 
crisp, fresh, and sweet. And here we must speak of the strawberry, 
that quintessence of fragrance and delicate flavor, so long a favorite 
dessert dish of the epicure. In past times the coming and going of 
the strawberry season, limited to local sections, was confined within 
two or three weeks of time, but now the fresh fruit may be enjoyed 
from mid-winter to mid-summer. Months before the vines of the 
North begin to show the deep red of the ripe berry, the Southern 
grower is gathering his perfected crop and consigning great quantities 
of it to the cars, to be borne at express speed to all the expectant 
cities lying to the northward. In the Gulf States the picking begins 
very early in the season, and thence creeps slowly up through the 
Carolinas and Virginia during April and May, to reach the profuse 
orchards of Maryland in early June. In these later days no one 
can well say when the strawberry crop begins, while it ends in such 
a profusion of other fruits that its outgoing is scarcely perceptible. 

Such is a glimpse of the multitude of toothsome delicacies with 
which the South now regales the North. We have said nothing 
here of the early vegetables, — peas, cabbages, onions, potatoes, etc. — 
which make their way northward long before their season of ripening 
comes in northern fields. As regards the tropical and semi-tropical 
fruits, which Florida in especial provides in such luscious plenitude, 
some words of commendation may be said. It is scarely fair to 
speak of Florida distmctively as the "land of flowers," in view of 
the fact that the whole lower South is a glowing garden of bloom, 
but it may justly be called the "home of the orange," California 
being its only rival state in the growth of this delicious product 
of tropic suns. 

The orange is not native to this continent. We owe its intro- 
duction to the Spanish cavahers. But it has taken root and grown 



I 



Farming Industry in the South 417 



abundantly, and with a sweetness of juice and delicacy of flavor 
which are very rarely equaled elsewhere. The finest fruit in the 
world grows and ripens on the banks of the Indian River, in Florida. 
Here, basking in the warm Gulf Stream breezes, the trees bear globes 
of swelling sweetness as large as croquet balls, deep and rich in color, 
thin-skinned, bursting full of delicious juice and flavored as if for a 
feast of the gods. 




ORANGE GROVE, SOUTH JAC CSONVILLE, FLORIDA 
A prolific home of the "Golden Apples" of the present day. 

While the orange has long been grown in Florida, its culture as 
a profitable industry is a recent one. The fruit was first raised in 
this country for market by Dr. Clayton Cargill, of Delaware, in 
1865. Soon after this Mrs. Harriet BeecherStowe, visiting the region 
in Florida, wrote glowing letters on the possibilities for orange cul- 
ture. Since then the trackless pine woods have been largely convert- 

27 



4i8 Farming Industry in the South 

ed into orange bowers, beautiful to look upon, delightful to the 
senses,and profitable to the owner. There are many millions of dollars 
now invested in orange groves in Florida, and the yearly return is 
great. Fifty varieties are yielded by the tall, graceful, shining-leaved 
trees in that state alone, and fully 10,000 square miles are adapted 
to the production of the bridal blossom and the favorite fruit. 

The orange does not stand alone. Its near relative, the grape 
fruit, is grown in Florida and elsewhere in the Gulf region, as also the 
larger but less palatable shaddock. And in addition the lemon, 
lime, fig, guava, pineapple, banana and other fruits of tropic origin 
are cultivated. Pineapple culture in this country is of recent origin, 
dating back to 1879, the largest plantation in Florida being that oP 
Thomas E. Richards, the pioneer in this industry. It is a fruit crop 
that seems capable of large extension and profitable returns. While 
the orange requires seven or eight years to become fruit bearing, 
the pineapple plant will bear a full crop within a year and a half 
after setting, and a cheapening of this dehcious fruit must lead 
to a much greater demand. 

This rapid review of the progress of market gardening in the 
South has been necessarily sketchy in character, but we hope it 
may prove suggestive. We have said nothing for instance, of the 
culture of the grape, of which some of the finest American varieties 
are native to the South, and which is grown everywhere in profusion, 
alike for the fruit itself, and for the delicious wine which is made 
from its juice. We allude to it here in passing, but the merits of the 
Southern grape are worthy of a large space devoted to its praise. 

In conclusion of this section of our subject it must suffice to 
say that the shipments of fruits and early vegetables annually made 
from the South now reach a value of about ^50,000,000, and this is 
in rapid process of increase. Norfolk alone ships northward about 
^8,000,000 worth of these profitable crops, to which the farmers of 
that vicinity now pay much attention. Farther South, through the 
Carolinas to Florida, the rate of progress in this direction has been 
great, millions of dollars being drawn to the foot-hill and mountain 
sections for such products as apples, cabbages, potatoes and other 
hardy crops, and to the lowlands for fruits and finer vegetables. 
In the coastal plain of Texas also the cultivation of orchard fruits 
and kitchen garden vegetables has made a promising advance. 

The mention of Texas brings us to another highly important 



Farming Industry in the South 4^9 

product of the farms and plantations of the South, that of live 
stock, to which this state in particular has been so largely devoted. 
For many years past the vast cattle-ranches of Texas have been 
subjects for the verse of the poet and the enthusiastic descriptions 
of the traveler. An undulating and forestless table-land, clothed 
with nutritious grasses, cattle-raising is its most natural industry, and 
millions of cattle and sheep feed over its vast plains. Two-thirds of 
the immense area of the state are pastoral, and a vast domain is 
fed over by enormous herds and flocks, many of the ranches being 
leagues in length. In former times the cattle of Texas were of the 
crude Mexican variety, and were allowed to wander in primitive 
fashion over enormous districts whence they were driven annually to 
the North in great herds to be fattened for market. All this is a thing 
of the past. The area of settlement is spreading out rapidly over the 
former wilderness, and restricting the lawless freedom of the cattle- 
men. The owners have found it profitable to improve the breed of 
their cattle, by the introduction of blooded stock, and to "ripen" 
them on their own pastures, this enables them to ship direct from 
Texan ports and to handle their own meats and hides. In cattle- 
raising Texas ranks first in the United States, and is almost without 
a rival in its number of sheep, horses, mules and swine, while its 
annual wool clip reaches a great total. 

Throughout the whole South, indeed, live-stock is raised in 
great abundance, there being an extensive area of pasture lands for 
cattle and of woodland suitable to swine. As regards the horse, we 
must seek the Blue-Grass region of Kentucky and Tennessee for the 
locality of its noblest development. Nowhere else in the world are 
there such pastures. The grass is a soft-folded and fine-textured 
green — not blue in any visible sense — and covers the pastures in 
spring and autumn like a matted moss. It is remarkably hardy, 
pushing up even through the snow of winter, and affording a year- 
round pasturage. It is supposed that the hard limestone water of the 
region aids in the strength of development of the bones of the animals 
grown here, not alone the horses, but the thoroughbred cattle, 
Coltswold and Southdown sheep, and Berkshire hogs. 

In fact, the improvement of the breeds of domestic animals has 
been for many years carefully sought for by Kentucky farmers, and 
with very encouraging success. The Blue-Grass region is famous for 
the raising of blooded stock of all kinds and in particular for its 



430 Farming Industry in the South 

thoroughbred trotting horses, which have no superiors in the world. 
These splendid animals add to the endurance of their Anglo-Vir- 
ginian ancestors the quaHties of speed derived from fine imported 
stock, and combine in a remarkable degree fleetness of foot and 
staying power. There are no finer horses in the world, and the 
whole country looks to Kentucky for its racing stock, for which 
high prices are paid. Horses indeed are sent from here to various 
countries of the old world, and to Australia and New Zealand in the 
South Seas, their reputation having become world-wide. From an 
early date in the history of Kentucky the horses of the Lexington 
district were esteemed, races being run here regularly as early as 
1787. In 1809 the Lexington Jocky Club was formed, and in 1826 
the Kentucky Association, to whose efi^orts the speed and beauty of 
the modern Kentucky racer are largely due. Fayette County, in 
which Lexington is seated, is almost wholly devoted to stock raising. 

The Blue-Grass region is one of great rural beauty and charms, 
with the graceful folds of its undulating surface, the soft shades of 
its woodland pastures, its rich farm lands and splendid highways. 
It extends southward into Tennessee, which state is also famous for 
its thoroughbred horses and its great herds of fine breeds of cattle, 
sheep and swine. The most notable stock farm in the country. 
Belle Meade, lies five miles out of Nashville, and is now some hun- 
dred years old. It was founded by John Harding, whose son. 
General W. G. Harding, a close friend of "Old Hickory," took steps 
to improve his stock by importing fine blooded stallions from 
Europe. He was succeeded in charge of the estate by his son-in-law. 
General W. A. Jackson, who kept up the traditions of the estate, 
its sales of thoroughbred yearlings having long been events of note 
in the history of the American turf. The estate covers 53,000 acres, 
and from it have come some of the finest running horses this country 
has known. 

There might be more said about the agricultural and stock- 
raising performances and promises of the South, but what has been 
above given will serve to show the great progress that has been made 
since the recovery of the South from its many years of poverty and 
political anarchy, the favorable position it has attained, and what a 
splendid future looms before it. With a few statistics indicative of 
present conditions this chapter may fitly close. The value of 
Southern farm products, as given in the census of 1900, came to the 



Farming Industry in the South 421 

large total of $1,271,654,273. Of this great money value, farm crops 
alone embraced $939,323,405; including for cotton and its seed 
$361,924,673 and for corn $233, 445,552, these two items covering 
nearly half the total yields. The remainder was divided among the 
numerous articles of cultivation indicated in the preceding state- 
ments. 

Honorable James Wilson, Secretary of the Department of 
Agriculture, in his annual report for 1900, outlined an interesting 
plan for the development of diversified farming in the South, and 
said: 

" In line with this plan there is now being undertaken in different 
parts of the South demonstration experiments for the purpose of 
showing the possibilities of more diversified farming. With the co- 
operation of farmers, working plans are being devised whereby the 
present system of growing only one crop will be changed so as to 
secure more diversification, thus insuring greater profits and the 
building up of the fertility of the land. There are many thousands 
of acres in the South where the same system of farming has been 
carried on for years and where it would be a great advantage to 
inaugurate changes which would lead to the building up of the fer- 
tihty of the soil and give broader opportunities to those handling the 
same. As a specific example of this work there is now being devel- 
oped in the South, as object-lessons, a system of what will be called 
'one-man' farms. These are small areas of land in the pine-woods 
region upon which a system of farming is being developed of such a 
nature as to appeal directly to the class of farmers who must neces- 
sarily handle such land. Instead of a single crop, simple systems of 
rotation are being put into operation, which can be handled by one in- 
dividual. In other regions, where the conditions are different, more 
elaborate plans are under way, whereby considerable tracts of land 
which have for years been cropped to cotton are being arranged for 
a regular rotation, introducing stock as an element for the purpose 
of showing the possibilities of such diversification and its bearing on 
the welfare of the different communities." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE VAST MINERAL AND FOREST RE- 
SOURCES OF THE SOUTH 

The coal and iron area of the Appalachians — Of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas — The 
petroleum regions — The marbles of Tennessee and other states — Noviculate, 
salt and gold — Hot springs and caverns of the South — The region of the cypress 
and pine — ^The hardwood forests. 

PROJECTED through the eastern section of the South, and 
extending southwest from Mason and Dixon's Line to die 
away gradually in the plains of Georgia and Alabama, is a 
vast mountain system seven hundred miles in length and one hun- 
dred and fifty miles in average width, covering an area of more 
than a hundred thousand square miles. This is the great Appa- 
lachian system — commonly known as the AUeghanies — whose north- 
western side is a practically continuous field, forty thousand square 
miles in extent, and containing within easy reach of the pick forty 
times as much coal as the coal fields of Great Britain ever held. 
And iron is here too, in unlimited quantities, iron enough to supply 
the world for many future centuries. Especially in Alabama, 
in its mountainous northern section, there exist in vast profusion the 
minerals named. Here are 5,500 square miles of exceedingly rich 
coal measures and iron ore in quantities practically unlimited. 
Take the Red Mountain vein alone, and we find a basin of iron ore 
half a mile wide, thirty feet thick, and one hundred miles long. 
And this is but one of numerous veins of red hematite and brown 
ores, varying from six to one hundred and fifty feet in depth. 
Close beside them are practically inexhaustible veins of bituminous 
coal, the combination making this region one of the most favorable 
in the world for cheap iron production. 

These mineral beds extend eastward into Georgia, which pos- 
sesses 200 square miles of excellent bituminous coal, vast in quantit)^, 

422 



Mineral and Forest Resources 



423 



while near at hand are immense deposits of red fossiliferous iron ore, 
covering 350 square miles. An abundance of limestone is an im- 
portant addition to this great supply of iron and coal. Northward 
as well as eastward this great deposit extends, the mountains of 
Tennessee being very rich in mineral wealth. The coal fields of 
this state occupy 5000 square miles of the Cumberland plateau, 
and iron is here in abundance enough to keep the forges of Chat- 
tanooga, Knoxville and Nashville supplied for many centuries. 
With them other metals are found, copper, lead, zinc and gold, all 
of which are mined to some extent. 




THE COAL FIELDS OF THE SOUTH 

Coal unmined, 600,000,000,000 short tons, or more than one-quarter of the total coal reserve of the United 
. States. Coal mined in Southern States, 1905; 80,000,000 tons valued at $80,000,000. Coal 
mined in Southern States to date ; 800,000,000 short tons. 

Northward into Kentucky extend these rich deposits of nature's 
treasures, the coal area covering 9000 square miles, while iron is 
present in abundance, though as yet Httle has been done in mining 
and manufacture. Similar conditions exist in Virginia, in whose 
mountains rich deposits of iron ore are found, the beds being from 
twenty to one hundred feet thick and many miles in length. Along 
the western foot hills of the Blue Ridge brown hematite ore extends 
for 300 miles, and solid masses of ore crop out in the Alleghanies. 
West of the Alleghanies is a rich coal-bearing region, 1000 square 



424 Mineral and Forest Resources 

miles in area. These valuable minerals extend northward into. 
Maryland, where they are extensively mined, and westward into 
West Virginia, whose coal fields underlie nearly the whole state, 
being over 16,000 square miles in area, with many veins of great 
thickness and easily and cheaply worked. Iron ore also exists in 
enormous deposits, as yet but httle developed, though coal is largely 
produced in this state, it being third in the Union in its output. 

The states west of the Mississippi are similarly rich in iron and 
other minerals, especially Missouri, which has some of the most 
remarkable deposits of iron ore in the world, this metal occurring 
here in mountain masses. Iron Mountain is a low hill, of 500 acres 
area and covered with a vein of very rich ore from six to thirty feet 
thick. While not a mountain of iron, as it is usually called, the deposit 
is vast in quantity, and millions of tons of it have been mined. It 
is eighty miles south of St. Louis, and in the same district rises 
Pilot Knob, 600 feet high, and containing a bed of ore of equal 
thickness, each of them yielding more than fifty per cent of excellent 
iron. Shepherd Mountain is very rich in specular and magnetic 
ore of fine quality, and there are various deposits elsewhere, while 
the abundance of smelting coal and fluxes aid greatly in the working 
of these ores. The coal beds, bituminous and cannel in quality, 
extend under 26,000 square miles with many workable areas, fine 
bituminous coal in strata from twenty to eighty feet thick occurring 
along the Osage River. Another mineral which occurs in vast 
deposits in this state is lead, coming to the surface of the ground at 
Granby and Joplin, from which thousands of tons are suppHed. 
Millions of pounds were found in the magnesian limestone adhering 
to the roofs and sides of the Washington County caves. Other 
metals of value in the state are zinc, copper and nickel. 

Arkansas is little less rich in minerals, its coal strata underlying 
12,000 square miles of area. A valuable basin extends along both 
sides of the Arkansas River. Iron ore also occurs in considerable 
quantity, and there are deposits of lead, copper, zinc, manganese, 
and other minerals. But the coal supply forms the great treasure- 
house of the state, which at some time in the future it must greatly 
enrich. Crossmg the Texas border, we find iron there in vast 
deposits in Llano and Burnet Counties, and along the Rio Grande, 
and very choice magnetic ores in Mason County. In the east are 
abundant hematite ores. Copper and lead are found, with some 



Mineral and Forest Resources 



425 



gold and silver, and coal extends over a wide area, though not of 
good quality. A broad region along the coastal plain and the Rio 
Grande yields Hght fibrous Hgnite, or brown coal, in beds twenty 
feet thick. This is of little use in itself, but makes good fuel when 
pressed into briquettes and soaked with crude petroleum. 









Courtesy of the Forest Serviee, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 

PULLING OR CHIPPING BARK FOR TURPENTINE IN SOUTH CAROLINA 
An enormous trade in this industry has been developed in recent years. 

Closely affiliated with coal is petroleum or rock oil, and this 
valuable gift of the earth, which has done so much toward enriching 
Pennsylvania and the states north of the Ohio, has of late years been 
found in vast quantities in Texas, adding enormously to the natural 
wealth of the Lone Star state. The oil of Pennsylvania, with its rich 
extension into Ohio, belongs to what is known as the Appalachian 
oil field, and follows the mountains, on their western border, south- 
ward into Alabama, though it has as yet developed no special rich- 



426 Mineral and Forest Resources 

ness except in West Virginia, whose yield in some recent years has 
rivaled that of Pennsylvania, and reached to nearly a fourth of the 
total petroleum yield of the whole United States. Of recent years 
hundreds of wells have been sunk in Kentucky and Tennessee, and 
prospecting is going on with much rapidity. The yield as yet has 
not been large, but there is excellent promise and the search for oil 
is being prosecuted with much enthusiasm. The development 
extends as far south as Alabama, in which state recent discoveries 
have been made. 

The great event of late years in the petroleum field, however, 
has been the rich discovery at Beaumont, Texas, where a gushing 
well was struck on January lo, 190 1, which threw a six-inch stream 
of oil 195 feet high and formed a small lake of petroleum before it 
could be brought under control. Its discovery led to the whole 
surrounding region being dihgently explored and numerous rich 
wells sunk, all of them in Spindle Top Hill, within half a mile of the 
original well. During the summer of 1901 the yield reached 1,000 
barrels a day. By 1903 the flow had greatly decreased, the oil 
then lying thirty feet below the surface, and needing to be pumped 
out. This Texas oil is thick and heavy like the Russian, excellent 
for fuel, for which it is being extensively used, and yielding a con- 
siderable percentage of illuminating oil. It is produced at low cost, 
and has cheap transportation to the coast, so that it is finding a large 
market and must enrich Texas greatly. Beaumont is seated on the 
Nueches River, twenty miles from its mouth, in the extreme south- 
eastern corner of the state and near the Louisiana border, and the 
search of oil has extended with success into the latter state. There 
are oil wells elsewhere in Texas, and an annual yield of over 700,000 
barrels was reached before the Beaumont strike. 

So great is the yield of oil, and so advantageously are the petro- 
leum fields of Texas, Louisiana and Alabama situated for water 
transportation, that their discovery must create in the Gulf region an 
activity and prosperity greater than anything which the South has 
yet seen. MiUions of dollars are being expended in the construction 
of refineries in the Beaumont section; millions of dollars are being 
invested in transportation projects to handle its oil for coastwise 
trade, as well as for Europe, and the prosperity which oil has added 
to Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio must be duplicated many 
times over in the Gulf oil region. 



Mineral and Forest Resources 427 

While the minerals we have named are those upon which the 
South must chiefly depend for its prosperity in mining and manu- 
facture, there are others of importance which call for mention. 
Building stones of great variety and utihty are very abundant, and 
among these we must especially speak of the beautiful marbles of 
East Tennessee, which are among the finest in the world, and, beino- 
free from iron and sulphur, are not hable to stain or tarnish. Every 
color and variety of tint exists, — white, red, yellow, black, gray, 
blue, fawn colored, chocolate, claret, variegated, and many other 
hues. The white marbles are second only to those of Carrara in 
fineness and delicacy of texture and the colored varieties yield many 
exquisite tints and combinations. The magnificent stairways of 
the Capitol at Washington were made of the light mottled straw- 
berry marble of the Holston River, and Tennessee marbles have 
been profusely used in the superb Congressional Library and 
in State and National buildings in various parts of the Union, includ- 
ing the costly State Capitol of New York. The white marble of the 
Knoxville Custom House is claimed to be unequaled as a building 
stone, it presenting a dehcate pink hue when poHshed. Knoxville 
is the center of the marble industry, there being numerous quarries 
in its vicinity and mills in the city for sawing and shaping the marble. 
Millions of dollars are added to the state resources by these splendid 
quarries, there being no more exquistely beautiful building material 
in the world than the marbles of Tennessee. 

In Arkansas occur marbles of grey, pink and variegated hues 
which rival those of Tennessee. They exist in great quantity and in 
excellent shape for quarrying, but as yet are allowed to rest as nature 
placed them. They must add largely to the wealth of the state in 
the Arkansas of the future. Texas is also rich in beautiful marbles 
and Georgia has a great wealth of this splendid building material. 
The people of Georgia have shown great activity in this field of 
industry, the fine marbles of this state having been diligently 
quarried since 1885. They occur in many difi^erent tints, as pure 
white, white spotted and veined with black, dark mottled and. 
variegated blue, pink, salmon, orange and olive. This beautiful 
decorative material has been produced in immense quantities and 
sent all over the United States, being used extensively for floors, 
mantels and wainscots, for tombs and monuments, drug counters and 
soda fountains, and various other ornamental and industrial pur- 



428 Mineral and Forest Resources 

poses. These marbles are of unusual strength and density, are 
greatly varied in tint, and possess a useful non-absorbent quality 
which gives resistance to stain from all liquids. The deposits are 
extensive enough to supply all demands for many centuries. Among 
the many varieties the green, or verd antique, is of supreme beauty, 
and is sure to come into very large use for ornamentation. Its great 
strength makes it far superior to any similar foreign marble, as it 
can be cut in slabs and columns of large size without showing 
seams and cracks. 

The South is rich in building stones other than marble, and 
Arkansas boasts a product peculiar to itself, in its rich deposits of 
noviculate or whetstone rock, a material found only in this State. 
Here it covers a large area in Hot Springs, Garland, Montgomery 
and Polk counties. All our razor hones, and the finer whetstones 
used by jewelers, dentists, and engravers, come from this region, 
the fine grained quality of whose noviculate is unrivaled. 

Another mineral of which we may speak in passing is salt, that 
indispensable necessity of every table, and of which the South 
possesses various deposits, both in the shape of brine and that of 
rock salt. Of the brine deposits those of Texas are of importance, 
salt being produced at Colorado City and El Paso, and at the Grand 
Saline, one hundred miles east of Dallas. Large supplies are also 
yielded by the lagoons about Brownsville and Corpus Christi, and 
Hidalgo County possesses a lake a mile in width and very rich in 
salt. For generations past the Mexicans have obtained salt from 
this locaHty. But the great salt deposit of the South belongs to 
Louisiana, a state generally destitute of mineral wealth but possess- 
ing the largest and finest deposit of rock salt in the country. This is 
found on the little island of Petit Anse, in the coast sv^amp region. 
Here is a salt mine lying sixty feet below the level of the neighboring 
Gulf of Mexico, and in which the miners have hewed their way 
downward through fifty-eight feet of solid salt, cutting out the crystal 
material in solid blocks. Extensive workings have gone on here 
for many years, the salt being of a very superior quality, unsurpassed 
for purity by any other salt the country possesses. 

Last but not least to be here mentioned among the sources of 
mineral wealth in the South is the precious metal gold, which was 
mined in paying quantities before it was known that the United 
States had any richer veins of gold. This valuable metal is found 



Mineral and Forest Resources 429 

chiefly in Virginia, the CaroUnas and Georgia, the yield of it on 
record being valued at ,$45,000,000, of which more than ,$3,000,000 
came from one North Carohna mine. The greatest yield has been 
from North Carolina and Georgia, the former being credited with 
^21,700,000, the latter with ^16, ioo,oco. 

While considering the mineral w^ealth of the South, it is desirable 
to speak of its great abundance of mineral and thermal springs. 
Those of Virginia are very numerous and have long been famous for 
their medicinal qualities. They include sulphur, alum, iron and hot 
springs, many of which are still favorite places of resort. At 
Farmville is the strongest lithia water in America, which is shipped 
all over the states, while several of the sulphur springs are highly 
esteemed for their medicinal properties. 

Others of the Southern States possess heaHng springs, especially 
Arkansas, whose hot springs are of world-renowned fame. Ten 
thousand people seek them yearly to be cured of their ills, and 
a little city has grown up, crowded with hotels and stores. They 
occur in a narrow mountain valley, the springs in the mountain side 
being piped down to the bath-houses, which the water reaches at so 
high a temperature that cold water has to be added. The hot 
springs along the creek are used for drinking. These waters con- 
tain but a small quantity of mineral matter, but are held to be very 
beneficial in diseases of the skin, blood and nerves. The state 
possesses various other springs, some of them containing sulphur, 
iron and alum. 

We cannot close this description of the mineral deposits of the 
South without passing reference to the great Mammoth Cave of 
Kentucky, the most stupendous and wonderful of all the caverns 
of the world. Its labyrinth of grottoes winds away for over two 
hundred miles under the green hills of the state, now widening into 
great halls, now narrowing into corridors, and everywhere beautiful 
or quaint with its vast variety of marvels in snowy stalactite. It is a 
small world in itself, with its deep and wide rivers and its dark, 
sullen lakes. Virginia boasts a natural marvel of the same kind in 
Luray Cave, which, while a dwarf beside the Kentucky wonder, is 
famous for its beauty. It possesses various other caverns, and in its 
far famed Natural Bridge has one of the natural wonders of the 
world. 

Passing now from the consideration of the mineral wealth of the 



430 



Mineral and Forest Resources 



South to that of its forest treasures, we find ourselves in a field of 
industry little less in value. The production of lumber is, in fact, 
the fourth in importance among the great industries of the country, 
being surpassed only by the iron and steel, the textile, and the slaugh- 
tenng and meat packing industries. For many years it was very 
largely confined to the North, the vast forests of the South being 
left in great measure undisturbed, except as the land was needed 




A COUNTRY SAW-MILL 
When the "stand" at one place is cut, the mill is moved to another section. 

for the purpose of agriculture. But within the past twenty years 
there has been a marked change in this particular, and the South is 
becoming a great lumber producer. The white pine of the North, 
so long the favorite building material, has been cut off so recklessl}' 
that it has become necessary to seek new supplies of good workable 
timber, and these the South now chiefly affords. 



Mineral and Forest Resources 431 

The Southern conifers embrace chiefly the cypress and yellow 
pine, though hemlock follows the mountains downward as far as 
North Carolina. The cypress is a tree of low marshy regions, and 
occurs along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from the Dismal Swamp 
in southeastern Virginia nearly to the Rio Grande. It is found in the 
lowlands and marshes of the Mississippi from southeastern Missouri 
to the mouth of the river. Little is known of the amount of this 
timber, though it is of great value. The total amount reported 
in 1900 as owned by lumbermen was 6,562 million feet, and this is 
probably but a small fraction, probably not more than 10 per cent, 
of the total stand. The cut in the census year was 495 million feet. 

Most valuable among the forest trees of the South is the widely 
disseminated yellow pine. This valuable timber tree, of the several 
species known as long leaved, short leaved, loblolly, and Cuban, is 
found in all the Southern states, but more than nine-tenths of it is in 
the CaroHnas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
Texas, and Arkansas. In these states it occupies the Atlantic plain, 
with the exception of the low, marshy strips near the coast occupied 
by cypress, while inland it extends beyond the Fall Line to varying 
distances in the Piedmont region, from 100 to 200 miles in width, 
passing slowly by different stages of admixture into the hard wood 
forests of the interior. Over most of its range it forms pure forests 
of open stand, with little or no undergrowth. The area occupied 
by pure pine forests in the nine states above enumerated is approx- 
imately 150,000 square miles, or about 100,000,000 acres. The 
average stand of timber on this area, from the best information 
obtainable, is not far from 3,000 feet per acre, giving a total stand 
on this area of 300 billions of feet. An estimate made in 1880 
(Tenth Census) by Prof. C. S. Sargent gives at that time but 237 
bilhon feet, but there is abundant evidence to show that this estimate 
was much too low. The holdings by lumbermen of yellow pine in 
1900 in these states showed a total of 46,507,000,000 feet, or 15 per 
cent of the total estimated stand. The cut in the census year 1900 
was 8,523,000,000 feet, or 3 per cent of the estimated stand, and 18 
per cent of the amount held by lumbermen. If the estimate of the 
total stand given above is approximately correct, there is sufficient 
yellow pine to supply the present cut for thirty-three years, without 
allowing anything for growth in the interval. 

The central part of the United States, including the eastern 



432 Mineral and Forest Resources 

portion of the Upper Mississippi Valley, is a region of hard woods, 
composed of a great variety of species. The principal of these, 
from an economic point of view, are the oaks, which, with gum, 
poplar, maple, cottonwood, elm, and ash, make up the great bulk of 
the forest. The forest is nowhere composed of any one species, but 
is commonly mixed, not only with various species of hard woods, but 
with more or less conifers intermingled. The area in which hard 
woods form a predominant element of the forest is large, comprising 
several hundred thousand square miles, but it is ill defined. The 
stand differs greatly in different parts, hence it is impossible to make 
even a guess at the amount of timber of this variety. The amount 
reported as owned by lumbermen is in the neighborhood of 30 biUion 
feet, half of which consists of oak. This amount reported by lum- 
bermen doubtless forms only a small part of the stand, which may 
be five or ten times as great. The total cut of oak in the census year 
was 4,438,000,000 feet, of poplar 1,115,000,000 feet, with smaller 
quantities of maple, elm and ash. 

Of these hard woods, the greatest bulk and variety exist in the 
Southern states, comprising the great forests of the region adjoining 
the Mississippi and those of the Alleghany mountain ranges. The 
states of Kentucky and Tennessee and the northern parts of Ala- 
bama and Georgia are famous for their splendid mountain forests 
of hardwood timber, they being notable for the huge girth and great 
height of tuHp, oak and other species. In the west hardwood forests 
are found in the Yazoo delta region of Mississippi and range from 
the broad wooded plains of Arkansas across the great river to 
Tennessee and Kentucky. 

More than two hundred species of trees exist in the Southern 
hardwood forests, of which at least forty-five are of high economic 
value. The most important of these are several species of white 
and red oaks, attaining sizes of four to five feet diameter, with clear 
trunks fifty to sixty feet; the chestnut oak, furnishing excellent 
tanning materials for the leather industry; the tulip poplar, five to 
six feet and more in diameter, towering more than one hundred and 
fifty feet above the remainder of the forest; ash and hickory of 
excellent dimensions and quality; red gum, vying in size with the 
tulip trees, a species despised a few years ago, now a well-estabHshed 
article of utility; chestnut, beech, elm and hackberry, not to forget 
black walnut and cherry, in which the South is still rich. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE IRON FORGE AND THE COTTON 
MILL REGENERATE THE SOUTH 

The South in 1880 — The outlook before it — The results of progress— Early iron 
manufacture — Conditions in i860 — Judge Kelly on the South — The dawn of 
regeneration — Great progress in cotton spinning — Its present status — Iron and 
steel in Alabama and elsewhere^Rivalry with Europe — A vast spread of forest — 
The yield of lumber — Other industries of the South — A land of great resources. 

WE have spoken of the year 1880 as the period in which 
the powers of redemption of the South became fairly 
inaugurated. Fifteen years had passed since the close 
of the war, and within those years the South had risen above the 
ashes of its desolation, passed though the reign of terror of recon- 
struction, dismissed the horde of thieves known as "carpet bag- 
gers," thrown off the incubus of negro legislation, and emerged upon 
the dawn of a new day, lit by the early rays of a prosperity of a new 
type, one such as that section of the land had never before known. 
For centuries industry in the South had been almost wholly agricul- 
tural. Now there shone upon it the bright promise of a great me- 
chanical development, and it rose exultantly to meet the new con- 
ditions. It was the grand storehouse of the cotton fibre which for 
so many years had kept the mills of England and the North in 
busy operation, and there was needed only the strong hand of 
manufacturing enterprise to bring about new prosperity in the South. 
In its hills slept the coal and iron necessary to lift it into line with 
the enormous iron and steel industries of the North and of Europe. 
In short, in the word manufacture was spelt the regeneration of 
the South, and to this it now turned with hope and energy. 

Let us compare the South of 1880 with the remainder of the 
country. The South at that time was burdened with debts, both 
state and private, and its people hardly dared to credit that the worst 
28 433 



434 



Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 



of its afflictions were really over. Its railroads were in miserable 
condition, its manufacturing business was still in the experimental 
stage, its population largely exceeded any demand that could exist 
for labor under the prevailing conditions, and it had few banks and 
very feeble financial backing. The North and West, on the contrary, 
were in a state of almost unprecedented progress and prosperity. 
An active immigration had been drawn from Europe to the West by 
the aid of land-grant railroads, and a steady flow of men and money 
from the East had poured into that section, bringing it up to imperial 




COTTON AREAS AND PRODUCTION, 1906 

Each dot represents two thousand bales, or 1,000,000 pounds of cotton. This 

year's production was 11,345,989 bales, worth $641,720,435. 

proportions, opening to industry millions of acres of land, building 
thriving cities, and supplying a market for wares that taxed the 
factories of the East to supply. Enormous grain crops, meeting a 
great lack in Europe, brought on a new era in our foreign grain 
trade, burdened the railroads with wheat and corn, and gave wealth 
to farmers, railroaders and merchants alike. Everywhere except 
in the South were felt and heard "the thrill of the music of progress, 
the whirr of the spindle, the buzz of the saw, the roar of the furnace, 
and the throb of the locomotive." 



Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 435 

Such were the conditions with which we must set out, in any 
effort to study the record of progress made by the South after 1880 
and compare its advancement with the growth of the North and 
West. Any one who should have predicted in 1880 that in the next 
ten or twelve years the South would develop its agricultural, indus- 
trial and railroad interests more rapidly than the country at large 
would have been deemed an insane optimist. Yet what would then 
have been looked upon as the wild chatter of a visionary enthusiast 
is what time has brought about. The progress of the South, in all 
its fields of industry, has been proportionally more rapid than that of 
the rest of the country. And if such a change as this has been 
brought about in the face of the vast difference in conditions which 
prevailed in 1880, who shall set the measure of what will be done 
during the years still before us } 

In a Httle more than two decades from the time the work of 
development fairly began it has ceased to be a question whether 
Alabama can compete with Pennsylvania in iron, and the question 
has taken the form whether Pennsylvania can compete with Alabama. 
The same may be said of the cotton industry. Who among us now 
doubts that the South can compete with New England in the manu- 
facture of cotton goods .? But how many doubt that New England 
can compete with the South ^ Lumber manufacture is another 
industry which has become a leading one in the South, which is 
developing there, as it is declining in the Northwest, and it seems 
highly probable that for the future of its lumber supply the country 
will need to look to its Southern forests. Then there is the great 
production of cotton-seed oil and the development of other active 
industries, immense in their development and their possibilities. 

Since 1880 the growth of manufactures in the South has, in fact, 
become something astounding, when we consider the state of affairs 
from which it emerged. Up to the present time, as recently stated 
by Mr. D. A. Tompkins, the South may be said to have brought 
about the following results: 

" I. It has shaken off the idea of dependence on the negro as the 
laborer, and the latter is falling into the relation of helper to the 
white laborer. 

"2. It has accumulated capital enough to undertake very ex- 
tensive manufacturing, without in many cases the need to borrow 
capital from the North. 



43^ Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 

"3. It has demonstrated that the Southern man makes as 
successful a manufacturer and as skilled a mechanic as the Northern 
man or the EngHshman, and that the cHmate is rather advantageous 
than otherwise to successful and profitable work. 

"4. In iron, cotton, and lumber manufacture it is not a question 
whether the South can hold its own against other sections, but wheth- 
er other sections can compete with the South." 

For the remarkable progress here outlined the credit fully 
belongs to the man of the South. It was the Southerner who lifted 
this section of the country out of the desolation that followed the 
war, and Ht there the torch of prosperity. The Southerner it was 
who built cotton mills and iron furnaces, who exploited the abundance 
of the forests, who developed the mineral resources of the Appa- 
lachian hills, and built up the iron city of Birmingham. The Atlanta 
of to-day, one of the most active and progressive cities of the United 
States, is solely a product of Southern business enterprise. No one 
would wish to deny that Northern capital flowed in to aid this 
development, but it was mainly the natural flow of capital to the 
quarters where the opportunity for profitable investment had been 
demonstrated. To the Southerner we must give the full credit for 
the opening up of new channels for investment, and for carrying 
forward the ambitious enterprise of the New South to a successful 
culmination. 

Although the great profits of cotton culture long drew the atten- 
tion of the Southern man of enterprise to the development of the 
plantation as the most promising field of labor, it must not be imag- 
ined that manufacture was absent from the South even in the earlier 
periods of its history. In truth, the South deserves far more credit 
for productive activity than it has ever received. Especially in 
iron-making was enterprise early shown, the first settlers in the 
Southern colonies giving much attention to this line of business, and 
producing large quaHties of iron of high grade. Mr. James M. 
Swank, in his "History of Iron in all Ages," says in reference to the 
early furnaces and bloomeries of the South : 

"The people who built these furnaces and bloomeries were not 
only bold and enterprising, but they appear to have been born with 
a genius for making iron. Wherever they went, they seem to have 
searched for iron ore, and, having found it, their small charcoal 
furnaces and bloomeries soon followed. No states in the Union 



Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 437 

have shown in their early history more inteUigent appreciation of the 
value of an iron industry than North CaroHna and Tennessee, and 
none have been more prompt to establish it. The enterprise of these 
early iron workers assumes a picturesque aspect when viewed in 
connection with the primitive methods of manufacture which were 
employed by them. They were pioneers and frontiersmen in every 
sense; from the great world of invention and progress they were 
shut out by the mountains and streams and hundreds of miles of 
unsubdued forest. It is a curious fact that the daring men who 
pushed their way into the wilds of Carolina and East Tennessee in the 
last century, and who set up their small furnaces and bloomeries 
when forts yet took the place of hamlets, founded an iron industry 
which still retains many of the primitive features that at first charac- 
terized it." 

The early Virginians were equally enterprising. Among those 
who engaged in iron production were Governor Spotswood, who 
built furnaces as early as 1716, and Augustine Washington, the 
father of George Washington. Others engaged in similar enterprises, 
and for years the industry continued active, despite the adverse Eng- 
lish laws. When the period of wars and political troubles passed 
away this industry revived. Mr. Swank says: 

"About 1790 the iron industry of Virginia took a fresh start, 
as did many other manufactures of the state. This activity con- 
tinued for many years, but it was partly checked in subsequent years 
by the greater attention given by the people of Virginia to agricultur- 
al pursuits. No states in the Union gave more attention to domestic 
manufactures after the close of the Revolution than Virginia. 
Richmond, Lynchburg, Stanton, Winchester and some other places 
became noted for the extent and variety of their manufactures. 
Household manufactures were also everywhere cultivated. The 
manufacture of nails was one of these industries. Thomas Jefferson 
required about a dozen of the younger slaves owned by him to make 
nails, and it is said that they made about a ton of nails a month at a 
considerable profit." 

In 1856 Virginia possessed nearly a hundred charcoal furnaces, 
sixty forges and bloomeries, and twelve rolling mills, those being 
scattered widely throughout the state. In South Carolina iron works 
were first built about 1773, and most of the other colonies engaged 
at various periods in this enterprise, the development of which 



438 



Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 



continued into the next century. The advance in mechanical pur- 
suits of the negro race, as exhibited at the Atlanta Exposition, leads 
us back to the fact that in the days of slavery there w^ere many skilled 
mechanics among the negroes, good carpenters, good bricklayers, 
and good v^orkers in other industries, many planters training their 
slaves to skill in such pursuits. But the tendency so widely mani- 
fested to develop manufactures received a decided set back after 
the invention of the cotton-gin. This opened so alluring a channel 
for Southern capital and energy in the cotton field that it is not sur- 
prising that they were turned almost wholly in this direction, and the 




THE PART OF THE SOUTH W^HICH IS BECOMING A GREAT COTTON- 
MANUFACTURING DISTRICT 
Each dot represents a cotton mill. 

development of the plantation kept back for many years that of the 
furnace and the factory. While New England, discouraged from 
agriculture by the poverty of the soil, was engaged to a great extent 
in manufacturing pursuits, the South, reaping great profits from 
its planting interests, was with equal energy and success devoting its 
powers to the cultivation of corn, cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco. 
In the growth of these staples it was producing great wealth, and 
its agricultural prosperity fully rivaled that which wheat and corn 
gave to the West. 



Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 



439 



Then active enterprise displayed by the South in the exten- 
sion of its agricultural interests Vv^as fully as great as that 
displayed in the development of New England's manufactures, and 
this agricultural development v^as the outgrowth of a native energy 
that built in the South the first railroad of the country, that construc- 
ted more railroad mileage between 1850 and i860 than the New Eng- 
land and Middle States combined, and that gave to the city of 
Savannah the distinction of sending out the first regular trading 
steamship that ever crossed the Atlantic. In reference to the 
remark made about railroad mileage it may be stated that, in the 
decade mentioned, the South built 7,562 miles of new road against 
4,712 for New England and the Middle States, and in i860 possessed 
9,897 miles of road against 9,510 for the other sections named. In 
1850 the mileage of the two Northern sections exceeded that of the 
South by 2463 miles. The decade that followed showed a marked 
reversal in conditions, and in i860 the South led by 387 miles. 
Here was a display of enterprise for which the Southerner rarely 
gets credit. In reference to the possibilities of the South, Judge 
Kelley, the famous Pennsylvania economist, years ago remarked: 

"The states south of the Ohio, and east of the Mississippi, with 
their half miUion square miles of area, contain a wealth great enough 
for a continent — a wealth so vast, so varied in its elements and 
character, so advantageously placed for development, that these 
states alone can sustain a population far greater than the population 
of the United States to-day. 

"It was the building of an empire in the West that relieved and 
enriched the East as well as the West. The enormous energies, 
the 'Plant' used in that task, unparalelled in the magnitude of the 
work and the greatness of the reward to all, is now seeking a new 
field of investment, and there is no spot on earth sufficient for it and 
within its reach, but the South. I do not consider that there ever 
existed in the \Vest, great as its wealth is, or in any other portion of 
the country, anything Hke the natural wealth of the South." 

Coming now to the more special consideration of the develop- 
ment of Southern manufactures, it is of interest to state that this 
showed decided indications of development before the Civil War. 
In the decade from 1850 to i860 there were marked steps of advance 
in lumber, flour, cotton and iron manufacture, these nearly doubling 
within that period. In i860 we are told that the South possessed 



440 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 

In all 24,590 mills and factories of all kinds, with an aggregate capi- 
tal of 1^175,000,000. While flour and meal were the leading prod- 
ucts, cotton, lumber and iron manufacture showed some marked 
indications of a coming importance. But this all ended with the 
war, after which many years passed before the old conditions were 
restored. Not until about 1876 did the manufactures of the South 
begin to lift their heads again, but by 1880, they were once more 
fairly on their feet. Proverty still was the lot of the South, while the 
North and West were at that time rolling in wealth. But the day 
of the South had come and It set energetically to work to regain 
what it had lost, and make an opportunity for Itself. Let us put 
in figures some of the chief achievements of the succeeding Interval. 

Taking the cotton-weaving Industry for our theme we" may 
extract from the United States census returns some illuminating 
figures. In 1880 the South possessed 161 establishments only which 
made reports to the census; in 1890 there were 239, an increase of 
78, or 48.4 per cent; and in 1900 there were 400 separate estabHsh- 
ments, an increase from 1890 of 161, or 67.4 per cent. A scrutiny 
of the returns by States shows that substantially the whole increase 
of manufactures in the South was in the four States of North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. The number of 
estabHshments In these States was 119 in 1880, 191 in 1890, and 355 
in 1900. In the other States of the Southern group the number was 
42 in 1880, 48 in 1890, and 45 in 1900. 

It is, however, to reveal but a part of the truth to rest the 
statement of Southern industrial expansion upon the number of 
establishments; for in the decade 1880-1890 the number of spindles 
in the four leading Southern states increased almost threefold, from 
422,807 to 1, 19^^,256; and the average number of spindles to a mill 
increased from 3,553 to 6,258. In the decade from 1890 to 1900 
the progress was in an even greater ratio, for the total number of 
spindles in these states in 1900 was 3,791,654, the numerical increase 
2,596,398, the percentage of increase 217, and the average number 
of spindles to a mill had become 10,651. The Southern cotton 
industry, in fact, has expanded in all directions, in capital, consump- 
tion of material, employment of labor, and quantity and value of 
product, and the phenomenal growth of this industry In the South 
is the one great fact in the history of cotton manufacture in the 
final decades of the nineteenth century. 



Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 



441 



During the early years of the Southern development it was not 
unusual to equip mills with m.achinery discarded by Northern mills. 
But in the decades mentioned the numerical increase of frame 
spindles in the South was 2,672,128, and the number of new spindles 
3,283,884, showing that not only were all, or substantially all, the 
spindles in the new mills of the most modern type, but that about 
600,000 old spindles in old mills were replaced by new. Combining 
the twenty years we find that there was in 1900 a total of 4,117,654 
frame spindles in the South, and that 4,152,592 new spindles had 
been suppHed to them in that time. And not only had the number 
of spindles in the Southern states become nearly threefold that re- 
ported in 1890, but the spindles themselves are for the most part of 

the latest and most 
efficient types. In the 
years that followed 
this growth went on 
with accellerating 
rapidity, 1902 for in- 
stance, adding over 
1,000,000 spindles and 
31,000 looms, the total 
additions indicating an 
investment of over 
;^22,ooo,ooo. 

If now we take into 
consideration the con- 
sumption of the cotton mill product, we find that the South 
has gone ahead of the North in its proportion of cotton goods 
exported to foreign lands. The various mills of the country 
furnished goods for export during the year 1 899-1900 to the 
value of $15,357,502, or about five-eighths of the value of cloth 
exported during the fiscal year. Almost 60 per cent of the 
total value represented the product of Southern mills, and 
nearly 37 per cent the goods of New England. It is an interesting 
fact that South Carolina, which was historically and politically, 
during the years preceding the Civil War, the most conspicuous 
champion of a policy favorable to the exportation of raw cotton, 
upon which the planters most relied, and opposed to the fostering 
of manufactures of cotton, spun in its own mills in 1900 a quantity 




A FOUR-ROOM HOUSE RENTED AT $2 A 
MONTH TO MILL WORKERS 



442 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 

of cotton exceeding the half of its own crop, and exported close upon 
one-half of all the cotton cloth reported to the census as having been 
dispatched to foreign countries. The exact percentage of South 
Carolina of the total export reported was 45.5. 

Starting in 1880 with very small capital and with but little 
experience, the South has practically monopolized the coarse cotton- 
goods trade, and is pushing into finer goods with great energy. It is 
useless for Great Britain or New England to argue against this. 
The logic of facts disproves all arguments. No one pretends to say 
that the South will spin and weave every bale of cotton that it raises. 
New England, Great Britain and the Continent will continue to be 
cotton-manufacturing centers, but an immense growth of this 
industry is in the air for the future of the South. The world's needs 
are steadily growing, and in the supplying of them the mills of the 
South will take a very important part. 

Cotton-manufacturing is a Southern industry in a fuller sense 
than any other line of manufacturing in the South. Its development 
is mainly due to the energy and enterprise of Southern people, 
though of late years many of the leading cotton-mill companies of 
New England have given the strongest proof of their belief in the 
preeminent advantages of this section by building branch mills in 
the South, these having gradually become as large as, and in some 
cases larger than, the parent mills in New England. It is not alone 
the saving of freight of raw material, but the greater cheapness of 
labor and the abundance of water power, which have had to do with 
this recognition of the superior advantages of the South. And in this 
connection we may speak of the great development of another indus- 
try based on cotton, that of cotton-seed oil. In 1880 there were 
only forty mills, with a capital of ^3,500,000, concerned in this 
industry. In 1900 there were over 500 mills, with $34,500,000 capital 
and an annual consumption of 2,500,000 tons of seed. 

The iron industry has developed in the South side by side with 
that of cotton, though it is more confined in its field of exploitation. 
While cotton grows everywhere and the cotton loom may be set 
whirling in almost every city, the profitable handling of iron depends 
upon the near vicinity of mines of iron ore and coal, and at present 
Alabama possesses these conditions in the most available form. As 
a result, the great development of iron manufacture in the South has 
been largely confined to this state. 



Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 443 

The importance of the iron and steel industry in Alabama is 
directly due to the development of extensive deposits of iron ore, coal, 
limestone, and dolomite, which are found in most unusual proximity 
in the Birmingham district. This combination of natural advantages 
makes it possible to produce pig iron at very low cost. A charcoal 
furnace was built as early as 1818 but it was not until 1874 that the 
manufacture began to assume importance. Birmingham, named 
after England's iron center, was founded in 1871, Anniston in 1872, 
Sheffield in 1883, and Bessemer in 1887. An important epoch in the 
history of the industry began in 1895, when it was demonstrated 
that Alabama pig iron could be laid down in Liverpool, grade for 
grade, at less than the price of Middlesboro iron shipped across 
England to that point. Exports to England, continental Europe, and 
Japan in igoo amounted to 113,185 tons, a quantity greatly in 
excess of that reported for any other state. The total production 
of pig iron in Alabama in i860 was valued at ^64,590, in 1870 at 
^210,258, in 1880 at ^1,405,356, in 1890 at ^10,315,691, and in 1900 
at ^13,465,616. The most important' grade manufactured in the 
state in 1900 was foundry iron, no other state producing so large 
a quantity. 

It is noteworthy that the great development of manufactures in 
the northern part of the state has taken place largely without the 
advantage of navigable water for the cheap shipment of products. 
For years efforts have been made to connect the Birmingham district 
with tidewater at Mobile Bay by means of a canal and the construc- 
tion of locks on the Warrior River. Of the five locks projected 
three were cornpleted in 1895, and a route for the canal was surveyed 
by engineers of the United States. It is estimated that water com- 
munication with Mobile would reduce freight charges on iron 80 
per cent. 

The manufacture of steel has been much delayed from the fact 
that the large proportion of phosphorous and silica in the Alabama 
ores renders them unsuitable for the Bessemer process of steel mak- 
ing, so that manufactures are largely confined to the more costly 
open-hearth process. Attempts were made to produce steel in 1888, 
but little success was attained until 1897. About that time many 
engineers and architects began to show a preference for open- 
hearth steel, with the result of greatly stimulating its production in 
Alabama. In 1900 there were twelve furnaces in the state, with 



444 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 

an annual yield of 1200 tons of steel ingots, and the manufacture of 
steel has since then largely increased. 

Closely related to the production of iron and steel is that of 
foundry and machine shop products, the value of which advanced 
in Alabama from ;^2,I95,9I3 in 1890 to ^5,482,441 in 1900. This 
industry has been stimulated by the large production of pig iron, 
and has in turn reacted to increase that production. One of the 
most important of Alabama's foundry products is cast-iron pipe. 
There were eleven estabhshments, most of them at Bessemer, 
Anniston, and Birmingham, engaged in this manufacture during the 
census year. Some of these exported products to foreign countries. 
Other important iron products of the state are stoves, car wheels, 
boilers, and engines. The various iron industries continued to 
advance after the close of the census year. One of the largest plants 
in the United States for the manufacture of wire and wire nails was 
put into operation at Ensley, a large establishment for the manu- 
facture of steel cars was built at the same place, and a tube works and 
cotton-tie plant were started at Helena, while marked steps of prog- 
ress in the same direction took place elsewhere. 

As the case now stands, Alabama yields more iron products in a 
month than the whole South did in earlier days in a year. Northern 
iron-makers were long loath to perceive or acknowledge that any 
serious rivalry could come from the South, but in view of the fact 
that this section has advanced from six per cent of the country's 
production of pig iron in 1870, to some twenty-five per cent at the 
present time, and is progressing with increasing rapidity, a very 
lively alarm is now felt. Europe has now only three countries — - 
Great Britain, Germany and France — that excel the South in pig 
iron production, the other European countries being left decidedly 
in the rear. Though Alabama is the great iron state of the 
South, it does not stand alone in this industry. Maryland 
and Virginia in the north are large producers, and the central 
state of Tennessee yielded over ^5,000,000 worth of iron products 
in 1900, Chattanooga and Knoxville being the chief centers of 
the industry. 

Georgia also came actively into line in this industry in 1903, in 
the estabhshment of a great ^10,000,000 steel plant, the Mohawk 
Valley Steel and Wire Company, at the seaport town of Brunswick. 
This establishment, of which the corner stone was laid on April 30, 



Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 



445 






o . 

1— I -i-J (U 

O o 

< "^ S 

J Ji a, 

<- o 
>'5 



3 O 



446 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 

1903, is one of the most ambitious enterprises started as yet in the 
South. And while speaking of Brunswick, it is in place here to 
state that the growth of exports through Southern ports is increasing 
with phenomenal rapidity, reaching by 1906 nearly ;S6oo,ooo,ooo a 
year, or about 30 per cent of the total exports of the country. 

In connection with iron may be mentioned coal, which has 
become a large and valuable product of the South, expanding from 
about 3,500,000 tons mined in 1880 to over 30,000,000 in 1900, a 
very rapid rate of increase. Another great development in Southern 
industry has to do with the production of lumber, which is becoming 
one of the great industrial enterprises of this section of the country. 
The Southern states now contain the largest area of marketable 
timber of any section of the continent, nearly 40 per cent of their 
total area being wooded, as contrasted with 18.2 per cent for the 
country as a whole. While they do not equal the Pacific region in 
the quantity of timber, they have the great advantage of being much 
nearer to the regions of consumption. 

The great Southern pine belt, varying from 100 to 200 miles in 
width, and extending throughout the Atlantic and Gulf States, 
covers nearly 150,000,000 acres, and embraces not less than 25,000, 
000 acres of unculled virgin pine. This timber, especially the Long- 
leaf, Georgia or Yellow varieties, is unequaled among the pine 
timber for strength and durabiHty, while the Shortleaf and Loblolly 
are excellent for finishing work. In the Appalachian Mountain 
region and along the Mississippi are magnificent stretches of hard- 
wood timber, embracing more than two hundred species, one-fourth 
of which are now widely used. Chief among these are the white and 
red oaks, the tulip poplar, the ash, hickory, red gum, chestnut, 
beech, elm, and black walnut. Many of these trees are of immense 
size, and the forests are of inestimable value. The value of the 
lumber produced in the Southern states shows the great increase 
from ^40,000,000 in 1880 to ^188,000,000 in 1900, one-eighth of 
the whole product coming from Arkansas, while several other of 
the states show a large and important yield. 

In addition to their yield of lumber, the Southern pineries 
furnish a very large supply of naval stores, — rosin and turpentine, — 
a product which is obtained without impairing the timber value of 
the trees. For very many years, reaching back to the early colonial 
period, North Carolina was the chief producer of this valuable 



Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 447 

material, which in 1850 yielded naval stores valued at ^2,476,252, 
or 86.7 of the total product of the country. The industry reached 
its height in this state about i860, and since then has gradually 
fallen off, while it has grown to large proportions in some other 
states. South Carolina and Georgia followed in this industry about 
1850, and the latter state has since become the great producer of the 
countr}^, while Florida ranks second. In 1900 the product of Georgia 
amounted to 305,791 barrels of spirits of turpentine and 950,582 
barrels of rosin, valued at $8,110,468; Florida yielded over three- 
fourths this quantity, valued at $6,469,605, and Alabama had a prod- 
uct valued at $2,033,705. Mississippi has also a considerable yield 
and Louisiana a small one. 

These constitute the more important of the general manufac- 
tures of the South, though there are others more restricted in locaHty 
of large yield and much importance. The refining of sugar and mo- 
lasses in Louisiana, for example, is a business of large proportions, 
employing a capital of $53,000,000. Kentucky has $17,000,000 
capital invested in Hquor production and $9,500,000 in the manu- 
facture of tobacco. In the latter Virginia is a close rival, while 
Florida has $5,500,000 invested in the same business. South 
Carolina and Florida have a localized industry in the production 
of fertilizers from the valuable phosphate beds of those states, South 
CaroHna having $10,500,000 invested in this industry and Florida 
a much smaller amount. 

The South possesses other industries of much importance, that 
of flour and meal, for instance, being large in nearly all the states. 
Of the output of oil and other products ot the cotton-seed we have 
elsewhere spoken. Building stones form another valuable product, 
especially the splendid marbles of Tennessee, whose exquisite 
beauty form much of the charm of the Capitol and Library build- 
ings at Washington. These are quarried to the value of millions 
of dollars annually. 

We have confined ourselves in the above pages to a condensed 
statement of the great progress in manufacturing industries made in 
the South during the twenty years from 1880 to 1900. This progress 
has been immense, yet it is only a beginning. In 1880 the South was 
largely destitute of capital and had no resources beyond the product 
of its fields and the treasures of nature growing in its forests and 
buried in its hills. In 1900 it had accumulated a large capital and 



448 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 

was making the product of field, forest and mine the basis of an 
active industry and fast growing prosperity. Yet it had still only 
fairly started in its career. But the vista of a vast success was open- 
ing before it, wide and long, and with eager feet it was treading 
rapidly onward to a resolute and close rivalry with the great pro- 
ducing regions of the world. It possessed advantages in this con- 
test unequaled elsewhere. On its soil was grown three-fourths of 
the whole cotton crop of the world. Its forests held more than half 
the standing timber of the United States. It possessed iron and coal 
in close proximity and unlimited supply, and the low cost of mining 
and nearness to the centers of manufacture enabled it to produce 
pig iron and steel at a specially low cost. To the advantage of cheap 
coal it added that of a great abundance of water-power. In fact, 
no other section of the land equaled it in its natural resources, 
among which we may name its many navigable rivers and fine sea- 
ports. To these may be added the artificial but necessary resource 
of the railroad, which is now penetrating every section of the South. 
In brief, this section of our land has everything necessary to give 
it a great and prosperous future, and we may safely predict for it a 
bright and brilliant destiny. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

FROM COMMON SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY 

Schools in early Virginia — School laws in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia 
— The era of academies — Peabody and Slater gifts to education — Progress of 
public schools — William and Mary College — ^Washington and Lee College — 
University of Virginia — Other Virginian Colleges — Maryland Institutions — 
Universities at Nashville and Knoxville — Colleges in the Carolinas — Education 
in Kentucky — Missouri and Arkansas — ^The University of Georgia and other 
Institutions of that State — Florida and Alabama Institutions — The Tuskegee 
Institute — Tulane University of Louisiana and other advajiced schools — Te«as 
and its colleges — Baylor University — The problem of negro education. 

IT was to the citizens of towns that we owe the earliest schools 
in the American colonies, and as New England was especially 
the seat of town life it was there that public education first 
prospered. Among the scattered population of the rural districts, 
to whom existence was severe and labor incessajit, there was little 
thought of and less time for school-life, and though laws were passed 
making education compulsory, they were largely dead letters. 

In the South, a country very largely rural, and of which the 
laboring population was almost wholly servile, the education of the 
poor was long much neglected. In Virginia efforts were made at an 
early date to organize free schools, and even to found a college, but 
they were not very successful. Large grants of land and about ten 
thousand dollars in money were devoted to the purpose. In 1619 
the Virginia Company bade the Governor to see "that each town, 
borough and hundred procured, by just means, a certain number of 
their children to be brought up in the first elements of literature, that 
the most towardly of them should be fitted for college. " A free 
school was early opened in Charles City, and another in Elizabeth 
City in 1624, and four years before John Howard endowed his 
29 449 



45° Common School to University 

college the School at Ehzabeth City was endowed by a far-seeing 
Virginian with two hundred acres of land and "the milk and increase 
of eight cows." In 1649 ^^^^ school possessed a "fine house," 
together with "forty milch kine and other accomodations." 

Yet despite these laudable efforts, the cause of pubhc education 
was greatly neglected. We are told by Burk, the historian, that 
"until the year 1688, no mention is anywhere made in the records of 
schools, or of any provision for the instruction of youth. " Seven- 
teen years before this date Governor Berkeley had made the famous 
declaration which we have already quoted: "I thank God there 
are no free schools or printing; and I hope we shall not have these 




WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE 

This rare print is the oldest picture of the College known to be in existence. 

hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy 
and sects into the world; and printing has divulged them, and libels 
against the best government. God keep us from both." With 
governors of this disposition, we can well understand why educa- 
tion did not flourish in the old Commonwealth. 

Yet five years after this was spoken, one citizen bequeathed six 
hundred acres of land, "together with ten cows and one breeding 
mare, for the maintenance of a free school forever;" and before the 
century closed William and Mary, the second college in America, 
was founded at WiUiamsburg. 

Such were the first feeble efforts to estabHsh a system of public 



Common School to University 451 

education on Southern soil. Similar steps were taken in Maryland, 
and in 1694 an act was passed by the legislature of that colony for the 
establishment of free schools. To support them, taxes were laid on 
imported spirits and negroes and exported furs, skins, beef and pork. 
This system was not put into effect until 1723, when a board of 
visitors for each county was created, with authority to purchase land 
for boarding schools and to employ teachers. Hildreth tells us 
that Maryland provided more liberally for the instruction of her 
youth than any of the other colonies. 

Yet nowhere in the colonies could the cause of public education 
be said to have flourished previous to the Revolution. The severe 
laws passed in New England were constantly broken, the people 
being too poor, and too much disturbed by Indian wars and other 
causes, to trouble themselves much about the education of their 
children. A law of New Hampshire required that every town of a 
hundred families should support a school to fit scholars for college, 
but very little heed was paid to this edict. North Carolina, in its 
State Constitution of 1776, required that scholars should be en- 
gaged for the instruction of youth, "With such salaries to the mas- 
ters paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low 
prices, and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promo- 
ted in one or more universities." Yet this requirement was prob- 
ably very ineffective in its results. 

Georgia was one of the first of the states to affirm the necessity 
of a system of common schools, doing so in its Constitution of 1777. 
Six years later the legislature set aside 1000 acres in each county as a 
school endowment, and in 1792 it gave each county ^5000 for 
the establishment of an academy, besides making large provision 
for the founding of a university. Yet in spite of all that was done in 
North and South alike education lagged in all parts of the country. 

The constitution of society in the South had much to do with the 
meagerness of public instruction. The laboring population was 
composed to a large extent of negro slaves, of the half-enslaved 
"Apprentices" sent over from England, and of the rude class of 
" poor whites " who descended from them. As for the children of the 
planters, they were commonly sent to England to be educated, or to 
such high class institutions of learning as William and Mary College, 
which, up to the date of the Revolution, was one of the leading 
collegiate institutions of America. 



452 



Common School to University 




THE SCHOOLHOUSE OF THE PAST 



The conditions existing in the South, indeed, stood in the way 
of the successful estabHshment of a common school system in that 
section until after the Civil War. Governor Hammond of South 

Carolina said in his 
message of 1844: "The 
free school system has 
failed. Its failure is 
owing to the fact that 
it does not suit our 
people, our govern- 
ment, our institutions. 
The paupers for whose 
children it is intended, 
need them at home 
to work. " The only 
part of South Carolina 
in which it maintained 
itself was in the city of Charleston. It also existed, though in a 
feeble condition, in the States of Louisiana, Kentucky and Missouri. 
Elsewhere in the South 
it had gained no foot- 
ing. 

But though the free 
school had made much 
less progress in the 
South than in the 
North, pay schools, for 
the children of the 
better class of citizens, 
were well supported. 
These were numerous 
and prosperous in the 
states down to the year 
1830, as incorporated 
academies, frequently 
under the care of a religious denomination. In the South they were 
generally under the control of the state. After 1830 they declined in 
the North, in consequence of the growing adoption of the free school 
system, but they had a longer lease of existence in the South. 








THE SCHOOLHOl'Sl'. «)F IME PRESENT 



Common School to University 453 

Since the Civil War the free school system had been established 
in every part of the South, and statute laws in all the states have 
provided for the education of all children at pubHc expense. Every- 
where the system has gained a firm footing and is strongly supported 
by public sentiment. In addition to the schools for primary and 
secondary education, others, usually called normal schools, are 
provided for the training of teachers, the result being a decided 
advance in the character of instruction given and the general stand- 
ing of the schools. 

The poverty into which the South was thrown after the war 
rendered the task of establishing schools for the free education of 
the young an onerous one. This was partly relieved by the munifi- 
cent gifts of George Peabody in 1867 and 1869; he establishing a 
fund of ^3,500,000 to be devoted to education in the Southern 
states. Unfortunately, more than a third of the sum was in bonds 
that proved valueless, but the remainder has been carefully nursed 
and judiciously used. In the earlier employment of the fund it was 
devoted to the establishment of pubHc schools. It being no longer 
needed for this purpose, the income is now used for the support of 
Normal Schools and Teachers' Institutes. 

In 1882 Mr. John F. Slater, of Connecticut, gave a sum of 
$1,000,000 for the purpose of "upHfting the lately emancipated 
population of the Southern states and their posterity." This fund 
has now increased to $1,500,000, while half a million of income has 
been expended. It is an important agent in working out the prob- 
lem of the education of the negro, which las been pushed forward 
with an encouraging rapidity. No part of the Slater fund is ex- 
pended for lands or buildings, but it is used to promote education in 
industries and for the instruction of teachers in well-established 
institutions. 

The gifts here mentioned have been of great benefit to the South 
in its earnest endeavor to advance the cause of public education 
among its youth, and have aided in estabHshing its system of common 
schools on the firm foundation upon which they now stand. What 
has been accomplished since the war can be best shown by a few 
statistics, which indicate that the South now stands on a level with 
the other sections of the Union in the development of its public 
school system. The figures show that the enrollment of pupils in 
the elementary and secondary common schools of the South is above 



454 



Common School to University 



the level of the remainder of the Union, the percentage of the popula- 
tion enrolled in the South Atlantic States being 21,06 and in the 
South Central and Gulf States 21.20, while that of the United States 
as a whole is 20.20. 
The average daily at- 
tendance is fairly up to 
the general level. In 
1 90 1 the daily attend- 
ance in the public 
schools of the South 
was in round numbers 
3,300,000, while that of 
the remainder of the 
Union was 7,500,000, 
a very fair proportion 
in view of the respec- 
tive numbers of the 
population and the dif- 
ference in conditions. 
Amone the active 




THIS SCHOOLHOUSE HAS TAKEN THE PLACE 
OF THAT SHOW^N IN THE CUT BELOW 

acrents in the work should be named the 
Southern E:ducation Board, a useful organization under the chair- 

_ „ manship of Robert C. 

f * Oo-den of New York. 




THESE rWO PICrURES ARE INDICATIVE 
OF THE SOUTH'S PROSPERITY 



Its Other officers in- 
clude C. D. Mclver of 
Greensboro, N. C, 
Secretary; G. F. Pea- 
body of New York, 
Treasurer; J. L. M. 
Curry of Washington, 
Supervising Director, 
and C. W. Dabney of 
Nashville, Tennessee, 
Director of the Bureau 
of Investigation, Infor- 
mation and Literature. 



The object of this organization is to awaken and inform public 
opinion and secure additional legislation and revenues for the better- 
ment of the public schools, "The supreme need of our time." As 



Common School to University 45s 

concerns the question of revenue the Board is amply equipped, Mr. 
John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil magnate, having come to its 
aid with a gift of ^1,000,000, while further sums have been 
received from other sources. 

With this passing glance at the development of the common 
school, the most potent agent in the uplifting of the masses known in 
modem times, some more detailed account of the institutions in the 
South for higher education becomes desirable. Among these we 
must specially refer to the venerable William and Mary College, 
of WiUiamsburg, Virginia. This lays claim with some warrant to 
being the oldest institution of learning in the United States, on the 
ground that it is the lineal descendant of a school dating back to 1 6 1 7. 
At any rate it is the second oldest college in the country, if Harvard 
be given the precedence in date, its charter having been approved by 
King WilHam and Queen Mary in 1693. King William aided in the 
original endowment, and the jfirst President was the Rev. James 
Blair, who had secured the charter. The college was founded under 
the auspices of the English Established Church, then dominant in the 
Southern colonies. 

The first college building, designed by the distinguished archi- 
tect, Sir Christopher Wren, was burned in 1705. A new one quickly 
arose, and the institution remained under the original president till 
his death in 1743. At that date it was highly prosperous, and when 
the War of the Revolution began, it was the wealthiest college in 
America. That conflict proved a sad injuiy to its prosperity, all its 
endowments vanishing, except a tract of 20,000 acres of land, by 
sales of which some ^200^000 were secured. 

Still more injurious to the venerable William and Mary was the 
Civil War. When that dread conflict ended the old college was a 
wreck. Almost everything it had possessed was gone, several of its 
buildings, as well as its library and apparatus, being destroyed. A 
desperate eflFort was made to retrieve its fortunes, and in 1869 the 
school was reopened in a new main building. But the weight of its 
misfortunes was too heavy to carry, in view of the more flattering 
inducements offered by richly endowed colleges elsewhere, and in 
1882 lack of funds and growing debts forced it a second time to close 
its doors. 

To many of the friends of education, and especially to those with 
a veneration for the early monuments of American enterprise, it 



456 Common School to University 

seemed a burning shame to let this venerable home of the classics 
sink into decay, and soon liberal hands were opened in its aid. Gifts 
came from the wealthy in the North and in England, the Virginia 
Legislature made it a yearly appropriation, and in October, 1888, 
the old college once more opened its doors, and invited those athirst 
for education to its halls. In 1893 Congress sought to repay the 
injury done it during the war by an indemnity sum of ^64,000, and 
since that date the college has been fairly prosperous. Some two 
hundred students yearly seek its classic shades, and it possesses an 
endowment fund of $154,000, with aid from yearly benefactions. 

No institution in the land has been more highly honored with 
students of national fame than William and Mary College. Among 
its distinguished Alumni may be named such men as Thomas 
Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler, Presidents of the United 
States; Benjamin Harrison, Carter Braxton, Thomas Nelson and 
George Wythe, who with Jefferson were signers of the Declaration of 
Independence; Edmund Randolph, the first Attorney-General of 
the United States; John Marshall and Bushrod Washington, famous 
jurists, and Winfield Scott, the first lieutenant general of our army. 
From 1788 to his death Washington was chancellor of the college. 
The Phi-Beta-Kappa College Society was founded in its halls in 1 776. 

While William and Mary ranks second in date among American 
institutions of learning, Washington and Lee stands sixth in date, 
being preceded, in addition to the early institutions named, only by 
Yale, Pennsylvania and Princeton. It had its origin in a collegiate 
institution founded in 1749 by Robert Alexander, an emigrant from 
Ireland in 1736. This bore at first the modest name of Augusta 
Academy, from the county in which it was estabhshed. In 1776 it 
was moved to Mount Pleasant, near Fairfield, and was given the 
name of Liberty Hall Academy. A second moving came in 1780, 
it being then located at Lexington, the capital of Rockbridge County, 
in which is Virginia's scenic wonder, the Natural Bridge. Its first 
endowment came from General Washington, to whom the General 
Assembly of Virginia had voted 100 shares of stock in the James 
River Canal Company, an enterprise which he had originated and 
developed. As Washington would not accept any payment for his 
services to his country or state, he donated this stock to the Liberty 
Hall Academy, which sought to reward him for the gift by adopting 
in 1798 the name of Washington Academy. The legislature had 



Common School to University 457 

commuted the stock to an interest-bearing fund of ^50,000. In 1803 
the Society of the Cincinnati gave the institution $25,000. The title 
of Washington College was adopted in 1813. 

The college went on, through days bright and dark, till the era 
of the Civil War, which led to its closing and the destruction of its 
scientific apparatus. When it opened its doors again in 1865, it was 
under the presidency of the most famous soldier of the South, Gener- 
al Robert E. Lee, who dropped the sword to take up the pen, and 
without a sigh of regret exchanged the command of victorious armies 
for the control of college boys. He did his duty in this humbler 
position with all the earnestness and serenity of soul he had shown 
in the tented field, and laid down his hfe in 1870 with the heartfelt 
tribute of respect and esteem: "Well done, thou good and faithful 
servant." 

The college showed its gratitude to the distinguished man who 
had "rescued the institution from the obHteration that threatened it 
after the Civil War," by adding his name to its title, which now 
became the Washington and Lee University. Since that date the 
honored old college has found many friends in the South and North 
aHke, and it now possesses an endowment fund of $750,000 and 
an excellent annual attendance. 

Virginia possesses one other collegiate institution dating from 
the eighteenth century, the Hampden Sidney College, situated in 
Prince Edward county, seven miles from Farmville and sixty-eight 
from Richmond. It dates back to 1776, in the stirring early days 
of the Revolution, when a struggling school was started, which was 
raised to collegiate dignity in 1783. Among its incorporators were 
James Madison, Patrick Henry, and others of Virginia's illustrious 
sons, and many men of prominence have graduated from its halls. 
The college was founded as a Presbyterian institution. To-day it is 
in a fair state of prosperity and it has always maintained a high stand- 
ard of scholarship. 

A more flourishing institution, that dates back the greater part 
of a century, is the University of Virginia, situated near the pleasant- 
ly placed city of Charlottesville, on the eastern skirts of the Blue 
Ridge Mountains. A few miles distant, on the summit of a hill 
rising abruptly from the plain, stands Monticello, famous as the 
home of Thomas Jefferson, the true father of the college, for the 
institution owes its origin to Jefferson, by whom it was originated 



45^ Common School to University 

and who was its first rector. Chartered in 1 8 19 and opened in 
1825, it possessed the high honor of having its buildings planned 
by Jefferson, who produced in it the most artistic piece of academic 
architecture in America. His designs have been strictly adhered to 
in the recent additions to the classic structure. His purpose in 
founding it was to carry out his ideas of the objects of the higher 
education, which he classifies as follows: 

"(i) To form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on whom 
pubHc prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend; 

" (2) To expound the principles and structure of government, 
the lav^s which regulate the intercourse of nations, those formed 
municipally for our own government, and a sound spirit of legislation 
which, banishing all unnecessary restraint on individual action, 
shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate the equal rights 
of another; 

" (3) To harmonize and promote the interests of agriculture, 
manufactures, and commerce, and by v^ell-informed views of poHtical 
economy to give a free scope to the public ministry; 

*' (4) To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge 
their minds, cultivate their morals, and instil into them the pre- 
cepts of virtue and order; 

" (5) To enUghten them with mathematical and physical 
sciences, which advance the arts, and administer to the health, the 
subsistence and comforts of human life; 

" (6) And, generally, to form them to habits of reflection and 
correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others, and of 
happiness within themselves." 

This institution is non-sectarian, and is singular m that it 
possesses no general curriculum, but is divided into separate indepen- 
dent schools, each under the charge of a professor, with assistants 
where needed. It receives an annual appropriation from the State, 
which grew from ^15,000 in 1825 to ^40,000 in 1884; and has had 
numerous gifts in equipments and endowments, including an 
observatory and a museum of natural history and geology. At the 
beginning of 1896 it possessed a library of about 54,000 volumes, but 
a fire in October of that year destroyed the rotunda and pubHc hall, 
several valuable paintings, and two-thirds of the Hbrary. Its Hbrary 
has grown again to about 60,000 volumes. Its attendance has varied 



Common School to University 459 

greatly at different periods of its existence, and now numbers about 
750. While not very largely endowed with productive funds, it has 
an annual income of nearly ^200,000. 

Virginia possesses several institutes of education of later date 
and of considerable interest. Oldest among these is the Randolph- 
Macon College, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church South 
in Mecklenburg County in 1830. Suffering severely in the Civil 
War it was removed in 1866 to Ashland and re-endowed. In 1893 a 
branch institution, for the education of women, was founded at 
Lynchburg. There are also two Randolph-Macon Academies, 
preparatory schools for the college, the whole four being under one 
body of trustees. 

In 1839 there was founded at Lexington the -Virginia Military 
Institute, which furnished numerous soldiers to the Virginia line in 
the Civil War, chief among them being the far famed Stonewall 
Jackson, who was a professor in that Institute from 1852 until he 
laid down the pen to take up the sword. In April, 1861, at the call 
of the State, the corps of cadets marched to Richmond, under the 
command of their professor, then Major Jackson, who had no higher 
ambition than to resume his duties in the Institute at the close of the 
war. Unfortunately, death prevented his carrying out his intention. 
In June, 1864, Lexington was visited by the military expedition 
under General David Hunter, who carried the brand of destruction 
up the valley of Virginia and devoted the buildings of the Institute 
to the flames, as if these were " contraband of war. " The war over, 
the buildings and equipments were rapidly restored, and the Insti- 
tute — the West Point of the South, as it has been called — entered 
upon a career of prosperity which it still maintains. 

The Virginia Polytechnic Institute, founded at Blacksburg in 
1871, is a prominent and interesting institution, turning out annually 
a large class of well-instructed graduates in mechanical engineering 
and scientific branches of study. It has an annual attendance of 
about 600 students. Blacksburg possesses also a flourishing 
Agricultural and Mechanical College, founded in 1872, under a 
Congressional grant of public lands. In connection with the college 
is a fine farm of 338 acres, where instruction in practical and theo- 
retical agriculture is given and an agricultural experiment station is 
maintained. 



46o Common School to University 

Another Virginia institution which has attracted much atten- 
tion is the Hampton Institute, founded in 1868 at Hampton, near 
Fortress Monroe, by General Hampton, for the instruction of Indian 
youths. Negro students were soon added, and large numbers of 
teachers were sent from here to the colored schools of the South, 
among them the well-known Booker T. Washington. The school 
has reached a very flourishing state of normal and industrial educa- 
tion, and has an annual attendance of about 1400 Indian and negro 
students, with an endowment fund of over ^1,000,000. 

Oldest among the collegiate institutions of Maryland is George- 
town University, which was founded under Roman Catholic control 
in 1789, while its location was still Maryland territory. Georgetown 
subsequently became a part of the city of Washington, and the uni- 
versity an institution of the District of Columbia, among which it 
ranks among the chief collegiate enterprises. The university en- 
joys a good income and has an annual class of nearly 700 students, 
with a large and valuable library, containing over 90,000 volumes. 

Maryland contains various other institutes of education, chiei 
among them being the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis 
and the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore. The latter stands 
very high among American universities, it occupying the position of 
a post-graduate institution as well as of a college for undergraduates. 
Founded in 1867, under a munificent gift from the wealthy merchant 
Johns Hopkins, it was not opened for instruction till 1876, and has 
since won the highest standing in the fostering of advanced scientific, 
historical and political research, the results being embodied in many 
volumes of original papers written by students of the university. The 
productive funds of the institution at present amount to ^4,400,000. 

Seeking the location of others of the early educational institu- 
tions of the South, we find one of much interest at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee, known as the University of Nashville. As early as 1785, 
when what is now the State of Tennessee was part of North Carolina, 
and was chiefly a wilderness within which white settlers were just 
beginning to build themselves homes, there was organized in the 
then small settlement of Nashville a school called the Davidson 
Academy. As the town grew, the school grew with it, expanding in 
size and dignity. In 1806 it was rechristened the Cumberland 
College, and in 1826 became the University of Nashville. It has 



Common School to University 461 

continued to flourish, and now has an enrolment of about 1400 
students. It is a coeducational, non-sectarian institution. 

In addition to this educational institution, Nashville possesses 
several others of prominence, of the most important of which we shall 
speak. On January 24, 1872, a convention of delegates represent- 
ing the Methodist Episcopal Church South met in this city to devise 
some method of promoting higher education under the auspices of 
that Church. A plan was adopted, a board of trustees chosen, a 
charter obtained under the title of the Central University, and every- 
thing was done except the essential one of raising the necessary funds. 
These were not forthcoming, and the enterprise seemed at the point 
of death when Bishop McLyeire induced the elder Cornelius 
Vanderbilt to endow the projected school with a fund of ^500,000. 
In gratitude for this gift the name was changed to Vanderbilt 
University. The institution has since been an object of the special 
beneficence of the Vanderbilts. The founder doubled his original 
donation; his son W. H. gave it in all ^450,000; his grandson, Wil- 
liam K. added ^140,000, and another grandson, Cornelius ^80,000. 
Smaller gifts were received from other quarters, and the institution 
now possesses, in addition to its various buildings and its seventy-six 
acres of ground, productive funds to the Value of $1,500,000. It 
has 100 instructors, about 800 pupils, and a library of 30,000 volumes. 

Fisk University at Nashville, an institution for the instruction 
of colored teachers, was among the first founded for that purpose, it 
dating back to 1866, shortly after the close of the Civil War. It 
arose through the efforts of General E. B. Fisk, and has been active 
and useful in the work of providing tutors for the manumitted race, 
having graduated over 600 since its organization. At present it is 
in a flourishing condition, having 43 teachers and over 500 pupils. 
In addition to the regular course of study, it has normal and industrial 
branches and schools of theology and music. Its charge for tuition 
is put at the very low annual rate of $15, while the expenses of 
students are scaled down to about $103. This institution has been 
of great benefit in the work of advancing the condition of the negro 
race. Nashville has still another school of this character, the 
Roger Williams University, founded in 1863. 

Among the mountains of Eastern Tennessee is another univer- 
sity city, that of Knoxville, in which is situated the University of 
Tennessee, an institution of early date and considerable importance. 



462 



Common School to University 



Knoxville, seated in the center of a highly productive coal and iron 
region, with zinc mines and a large number of fine marble quarries 
in its vicinity, has naturally become an active seat of industry, and 
has a large shipping and distributing trade. Its institutions em- 
brace the State University, the State Agricultural College, a Deaf 
and Dumb School and an Insane Asylum. Founded in 1794, two 
years before Tennessee became a state, the University has grown 
into an important and highly useful seat of learning, its classes 
now numbering about 700 pupils, with 80 teachers, while it 

has an endowment 
of ^425,000. Co- 
education of the 
sexes is a feature of 
the school, and no 
restriction is made 
as to color. Promi- 
nent among the re- 
maining educational 
institutions of Ten= 
nessee are the Grant 
University at Chat- 
tanooga, the Univer- 
sity of the South at 
Sewanee, the Cum- 
berland University 
at Lebanon, the 
Waldon University 
and the Peabody 
Teachers' College at 
Nashville. 

It is a little singular that the daughter State of Tennessee had 
established institutions of learning before the mother State of 
North CaroHna had any to her credit. But the latter was not far in 
the rear, the University of North CaroHna being founded in 1795, 
under a charter granted in 1789. It is a non-sectarian institution, 
under state control, its earhest endowment being a gift of 201,000 
acres of land in Tennessee, made by Benjamin Smith, who officiated 
as Governor of the state in 1810-1811. The University Is situated 
at Chapel Hill, Orange County, Its wealth in productive funds at 




THE DECREASING ILLITERACY OF THE SOUTH 
The white section represents the illiteracy in 1900; the white 
and black, together show the illiteracy in i8po. The decrease from 
tpoo to igo7 has been much more rapid. 



Common School to University 463 

present is not large, but, under annual appropriations from the 
state, it is doing excellent work, and has a yearly attendance of 
over 700 students. 

Among the other educational institutions of the state are the 
College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts at West Raleigh, the 
Biddle University, the Asheville, Davidson, Wake Forest and sever- 
al other colleges, and for the higher education of the colored race, 
the Shaw University, the Scotia Seminary, the Livingston College, 
and the St. Augustine Normal College. North CaroHna has had for 
years one of the most efficient agricultural departments of any 
state in the Union, this including an experimental station and farm 
of 5000 acres, the first in the South and the second in the United 
States. 

The neighboring state of South Carolina also boasts an institu- 
tion of early origin, the South Carolina College — now the University 
of South Carolina — founded at Columbia, the State Capital, in 1801. 
This was by no means the first collegiate institution of the state; 
one had been founded in 1785 and others projected, but they were in 
advance of pubHc demand, and the state felt obHged to take hold 
of the question by founding the above named college at the new 
capital city in the opening year of the nineteenth century. The 
institution became full fledged as a college in 1806, and in 1880 it was 
reorganized with two branches, the South CaroHna Agricultural and 
Mechanical College in the original building at Columbia, and the 
Claflin University at Orangeburg, The latter, despite its ambitious 
title, is the humbler in its purposes, being intended for the education 
of negroes. The original institution had been open to the colored 
race from 1866 to 1877, and it was the strong objection to this that 
led to the 1880 division into separate institutions for whites and 
negroes. So far as attendance goes, the colored branch is the ii.ore 
flourishing of the two, having an annual class of about 750, as com- 
pared with less than 350 for the white branch. The list of graduates 
from the parent college includes many names of illustrious citizens, 
and it has entered its second century of existence with a high standard 
of attainment and excellent promise. 

The state has several other educational institutions of impor- 
tance, chief among them the Clemson Agricultural College, with 
650 students, the Converse College at Spartanburg, with an atten- 
dance of 300, and the Furman University at Greenville, 



464 Common School to University 

Kentucky possesses no college of ancient foundation like those 
of the neighboring state of Tennessee, though it has a number of 
flourishing institutions. The Kentucky University, founded at 
Lexington in 1858, has an annual attendance of 1200 students under 
60 instructors. Tiie Central University, a Presbyterian estabhsh- 
ment at Danville, founded in 1874, has an equally numerous atten- 
dance, and a productive endov^ment of ^500,000. Another flour- 
ishing institute is Berea College, estabHshed at Berea in 1855, w^hich 
has an annual attendance of over 1000 and an endowment of 
^500,000. At Lexington is also the State College of Kentucky, 
founded in 1865, and with 800 students. For the higher education 
of the colored race Louisville possesses the State University of 
Kentucky, founded in 1879 under Baptist auspices and with an 
annual attendance of about 250. 

Missouri possesses a number of flourishing institutions, chief 
among which in prosperity is the Washington University of St. Louis, 
a non-sectarian institution incorporated in 1853. It embraces six 
separate schools started at different times: — the undergraduate 
department, which includes the college (1859); ^^^ ^^- Louis Law 
School (1867); the OTallon Polytechnic School (1870); the Henry 
Shaw School of Botany (1886); the St. Louis Medical College (1891), 
and the Missouri Dental College (1892). There are also three 
secondary schools attached to the university. The several depart- 
ments have in all arx attendance of nearly 2000, with 225 instructors, 
and the endowment of the institution amounts to ^5,500,000. 

Situated in the town of Columbia is the University of Missouri, 
an institution founded in 1840, and which has since added to its 
academic work departments of agriculture and mechanics, mines and 
metallurgy, medicine,engineering, etc. It is coeducational and non- 
sectarian in character and is largely attended, its classes numbering 
some 2400 students. It possesses a library of 64,000 volumes, 
while its income, including tuition fees, is over ,^500,000. Of the 
other institutions of the State it must suffice to mention the St. Louis 
University, a Roman CathoHc College, founded in 1829, and with an 
annual attendance of over 800. There are 50,000 volumes in its 
library. 

The leading scholastic institution in Arkansas is the State 
University, situated at Fayetteville, where it was founded in 1872. 
It has at present an attendance of about 1800 students under a 



Common School to University 



465 



faculty of over 100 instructors. Little Rock, the State Capital, 
possesses an institution known as the Philander Smith College, 
which attracts to its halls some 600 students, and there are various 
other colleges in different sections of the state. 

Among the Gulf States of the South, Georgia came early into 
the field of higher education, the University of Georgia in its early 
humble form dating back to 1785. In 1801 steps were taken to raise 




REPRODUCl ION OF THE F1K.S1' TUSKEGEE BUILDING 
It was in this building that the Tuslcegee Normal and Industrial Institute began 

on July 4th, 1881. 

it to the dignity of a State University, and the first commencement 
took place in 1804. This seat of learning has had a prosperous his- 
tory, and is now in a flourishing condition, with an annual attendance 
in its various departments of over 2700 students, and an endow- 
ment fund of ^500,000. The college proper (The Franklin College 
at Athens) admits annually free of charge "fifty meritorious young 
men of limited means" and also students for the university who need 
30 



466 Common School to University 

aid. Connected with it is a medical college at Augusta and an 
agricultural college of Dahlonega. The State College of Agriculture 
and Mechanic Arts is also a branch of the university, and has a 
special endowment supplied by the United States of ^240,000. 
There are in addition a law department and a preparatory school. 

The Baptist denomination in Georgia entered the field of 
education in 1833 with a manual-labor school called the Mercer 
Institute, situated at Penfield. In 1838 this developed into the 
Mercer University, a collegiate establishment which pursued a course 
of usefulness until the Civil War. The war over, it started afresh, 
and in 1871 was removed from the retired village of Penfield to the 
bustling city of Macon, where it has grown and prospered. This 
institution has, in addition to the academic course, schools of law and 
theology. Its classes number about 300, its library contains 15,000 
volumes, and it has an endowment of nearly ^300,000. Macon 
also boasts the Wesleyan Female College, chartered in 1836, and one 
of the first, if not quite the first, colleges for women in the world. 

In the same year Emory College was founded at Oxford in 
Newton County, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South. It has a valuable college apparatus and a good 
working library, but lacks an endowment. Its annual classes 
approach 300 in number. 

The above are the more important of the many educational 
institutions of Georgia, a state which has taken an advanced position 
in the field, not alone in the liberaHty of its appropriations, but by the 
adoption of modern methods in its public school system, and its 
normal school establishments. Intelligent care has been taken of 
the education of the colored race, these having an important seat of 
collegiate instruction in the Atlanta University, founded in 1867 by 
the Freedman's Bureau, and now aided by the State with an annual 
appropriation. Its endowment amounts to ^60,000, and it accommo- 
dates 300 pupils. Atlanta has in Clark University a second institu- 
tion devoted to the same purpose, being open to students "regardless 
of race or color. " It is well attended, its classes numbering over 600, 
and it adds to its collegiate courses instruction in agriculture and an 
active and useful manual-training department. It is under the 
fostering care of the Methodist denomination. 

The neighboring state of Florida has not as yet made much 
progress in education, on account of the lateness of its development. 



Common School to University 467 

Its most promising institutions are the John B. Stetson University at 
De Land, a Baptist College with about 450 students, and the RoUins 
College, founded in 1885 at Winter Park, a beautifully situated lake- 
side town designed to be a center of educational influence. There is 
also a State University at Tallahassee, a recent institution; a State 
Agricultural College at Lake City, and for the education of negro 
preachers and teachers, the Florida Institute at Live Oak and the 
Cookman Institute at Jacksonville. 

Alabama has kept pace with Georgia in the development of 
educational institutions, and the science of instruction has made 
promising steps of development in that progressive state. In this 
movement the city of Mobile, one of the first centers of population in 
the state, has played a prominent part. A century and a half ago, 
when Mobile was a French city, the establishment of a college there 
was suggested by the royal government, and this city became the site 
of the first American school. While still a Territory, money was 
appropriated in Alabama for schools at Huntsville and St. Stephens. 
In 1820 the State Legislature passed a law for the establishment of 
the University of Alabama, which institution opened its doors at 
Tuscaloosa in 183 1. It was endowed by the Federal Government 
with a splendid grant of lands, and has had a flourishing career. 
Most of the University buildings were burned by Federal Troops 
in April, 1865, but they have been fully restored and the institution 
is admirably equipped in buildings, apparatus and hbrary. In 
1884 Congress made restitution for the destruction of the buildings 
by a grant of a tract of about 46,000 acres of mineral lands, 
including some of the most valuable coal lands in the state. 
Some 16,000 acres of this have been sold, while the remainder promise 
to make the University one of the best endowed institutions of learn- 
ing in the land. The state owes the University ^300,000 derived 
from the original grant of lands, which forms the present productive 
endowment. There are fourteen departments of instruction, 
including professional schools of law and medicine, the annual 
classes at present numbering 470. 

Another institution of importance is the Alabama Polytechnic 
College at Auburn, founded in 1872 as the Agricultural and Mechan- 
cal College. This is conceded to be the best school of its kind in the 
state and one of the best in the country. Its course of education is 
both liberal and practical, and it aims to present such "facilities for 



468 Common School to University 

technical and scientific education as the future development of 
Alabama demands." This useful school has an annual attendance 
of about 600 and a library of 20,000 volumes. It is unendov^ed, de- 
pending for support on tuition fees. 

Among the various other institutions of the state may be named 
the Industrial School for v^hite girls at Montevallo, numbering 400 
students, the Southern University at Greensboro, founded under 
Methodist auspices in 1856, and the Normal Schools, of which there 
are four for white and three for colored students. The colored race 
has also a progressive inistitution in Talladega College, founded by the 
American Missionary Association in 1887 for theological instruction. 
It has an endowment of $235,000, and an annual attendance of 
600 students. 

Best known to the country at large among the educational 
institutions of Alabama is the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial 
Institute, which has been made widely famous by the abihty and 
enterprise of its president, Booker T. Washington. Organized in 
1 88 1 by a graduate of Hampton Institute, who had been born in 
slavery, and made his way upward by indomitable spirit and thirst 
for knowledge, he opened this institution in an old frame shanty with 
a few pupils, and in twenty years afterward had under his control a 
flourishing establishment, with 2500 acres of land, and more than 
fifty buildings, all of them built by the students themselves, who 
numbered in 1906, 1,630 under 156 instructors. In 1899 Congress 
added to the endowment by a grant of 25,000 acres of mineral land, 
and the Institute has at present property valued at $400,000 and 
productive funds amounting to $1,238,000. No man in the country 
has done so much for the true progress of the negro race as the 
capable, sensible and indefatigable President of Tuskegee Institute, 
of whom Alabama is justly proud. 

While the pubHc school system of Mississippi dates back only 
to 1871, it has been managed with such energy and efficiency that it 
now ranks among the best in the Union, this state expending perhaps 
more for education in proportion to taxable valuation than any other 
state in the Union. The state appropriation for public school 
purposes is more than a million dollars annually, and for educational 
purposes generally nearly a million and a half. Among its leading 
educational institutions it possesses at Oxford the State University, 
founded in 1848, and enjoying at present an endowment of $695,000. 



Common School to University 469 

This has been derived from the sale of lands appropriated by Con- 
gress in 1879. The institution ranks high among the colleges of the 
country. In addition to the ordinary collegiate course, it has facili- 
ties for professional education, including a school of law and depart- 
ments of science, literature and the arts. Tuition is free to all 
except law students, who pay a small sum. 

Another institution owing its foundation to aid from the 
Federal Government is the State Agricultural and Mechanical 
College, founded under a donation of 207,920 acres ofpubHcland, 
which has been converted into a fund of ^$227, 150. This sum was 
divided in 1878 by the legislature between two institutions, the 
Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College at Starkville, and 
the Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, the latter being 
devoted to the instruction of negro youth. The former possesses a 
farm of 1940 acres, well stocked with improved breeds of cattle 
and with a complete farming outfit. 600 acres are under cultivation, 
and the annual attendance is over 800, and is rapidly increasing. 
Tuition is free both in this and in the negro school, which has also 
been very successful. 

The oldest of Louisiana schools is Tulane University at New 
Orleans, whose original foundation as the University of Louisiana 
dates back to 1834. Its present title was given in 1884, in recogni- 
tion of a munificent donation made to it by Mr. Paul Tulane, a 
wealthy resident of the city. Aided by this endowment, the institu- 
tion has made rapid progress, and includes Colleges of Arts, Science 
and Technology, and the Newcomb Memorial College for Women 
established in 1886. The University is now in a flourishing state, 
with an annual attendance of over 1300, a library containing 35,000 
volumes and an endowment fund of ^2,184,000. New Orleans 
possesses a collegiate institution for the higher education of negroes, 
founded in 1874, with the title of New Orleans University, under the 
leadership of Dr. J. C. Hartzell, now Bishop of Africa. This 
embraces a college of Liberal Arts, a Normal, and a Medical College, 
the latter known since 1 901 as the Flint Medical College, in recogni- 
tion of an endowment by John I. Flint, of Fall River, Massachusetts. 
The attendance numbers about 800 annually, tuition being free. 
The Louisiana State University located at Baton Rouge, is a military 
school, but has an important industrial department, in which the 
mechanical arts are taught. Another institution of similar aims is 



470 Common School to University 

the Audubon Sugar School, which has supplied the sugar industry 
of the state with a large number of scientific workers. 

In addition to the New Orleans University the state possesses 
several other institutions devoted to negro education, one of these 
being the Leland University, also situated at New Orleans, organ- 
ized in 1870 under Baptist auspices. It is credited with the large 
attendance in 1902 of 1270. Gilbert Industrial College at Winsted, 
St. Mary's Parish, is devoted to the same purpose. It is supported 




THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF THE TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE 

by the Freedman's Aid and Southern Educational Society, and 
includes in its Hues of instruction the ordinary English branches, 
with agriculture and the mechanical arts. 

Texas, the final State with which we are concerned, possesses 
a number of flourishing collegiate institutions, the oldest among them 
being Baylor University, founded in 1845 in the then independent 
Republic of Texas — ^while free from Mexico but not yet annexed to 
the United States. It was named after Robert E. B. Baylor, a 
former member of Congress from Alabama, and for twenty-five 



Common School to University 471 

years a judge in Texas. This institution, seated at Independence, 
was given a university curriculum and classes in 1851 by the Rev. 
R. C. Barleson, its President from 1850 to i860. In the latter year 
he and all the faculty resigned, and inaugurated at Waco a new 
school under the name of Waco University. In 1882 the two were 
united into one under the original name of Baylor University, with 
Dr. Burleson still as President. Waco became the seat of the com- 
bined institution, which is under Baptist control, and in 1906 had 
classes numbering nearly 1200 students. 

Fort Worth also possesses a flourishing university founded in 
1881, and with an annual attendance of some 800. In 188? was 
founded at Austin the University of Texas, for which the state had 
set aside 1,226,000 acres of land. This is in a flourishing condition, 
with nearly 1500 students, over 40,000 volumes in its library, and 
productive funds amounting to ^2,000,000. It furnishes free tuition. 
Texas has in addition an Agricultural and Mechanical College, 
founded under a grant of land from Congress. For the higher 
education of the colored race the leading institution is Wiley Univer- 
sity, founded at Marshall in 1873 under Methodist auspices. It 
makes a very small charge for tuition, and its classes number about 
500 students. 

In conclusion some woras may be appended on the subject of 
negro education in the South, an undertaking which has made an 
encouraging advance since the Civil War. The pathetically eager 
desire for learning manifested by the newly freed slaves, apparently 
with the idea that in this lay the secret of white ascendancy, has died 
away in considerable measure as the years have rolled on, yet earnest 
eff'orts have been made to give the negroes the fullest opportunities 
for instruction, alike through the large provision for common school 
education, the institution of normal schools and the establishment of 
colleges in the several States, the principal of which we have named. 
As regards the latter institutions, however, it must be said that the 
eff"ort to make a cultured scholar of the negro has proved in great 
measure a delusion and a snare, and the prevailing opinion sets 
strongly in favor of such institutions as Tuskegee Institute, in which 
industrial education is made the leading feature. For instruction 
in agriculture and mechanics the negro is ripe. These he is capable 
of absorbing and the field for this exercise is large. But the higher 
branches of collegiate education are very apt to go over his head, 



472 Common School to University 

leaving him only a smattering which will never make him a scholar 
but may make him a conceited prig. Much may be done in the 
direction of making him a capable worker, but the attempt to make 
him an able scholar is quite sure, except in some rare instances, to be 
waste labor. No one recognizes this more fully than Booker T. 
Washington, whose intelligent work at Tuskegee has gone so far 
toward solving the negro problem, and whose trained students are 
now among the leaders of their race in a hundred localities. The 
object of the Institute is, as stated in its circular, "to furnish to 
young colored men and women the opportunity to acquire thorough 
moral, Hterary and industrial training, so that when they go out from 
Tuskegee, by putting into execution the practical ideas learned here, 
they may become the real leaders of their communities, and thus 
bring about healthier moral and natural conditions." In this 
laudable enterprise the Institute has had an encouraging success. 



CHAPTER XXVL 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTHERN 
LITERATURE 

Early American literature — Political genius of the South — Page on the lack of an 
early Southern literature — The pioneer writers — Early magazines — Kennedy 
and Simms — Cooke and Carruthers — Former women novelists — Edgar A. Poe 
as a poet — His stories and criticisms — Other poets of his period — Humorous 
writers — Effect of the war on the South — The new period and its writers — Page 
and Harris — Lanier, Hayne and Timrod — Novelists of a new type — Later 
writers of fiction — The characteristics of Southern literature. 

WHEN we compare the literary development of the two great 
original sections of the United States, the South and the 
North, it is to find the former lagging far behind the latter 
in early accompHshment. This the late able and ample hterary 
achievement of the South definitely proves to have not been due to 
lack of intellectual power, and its cause must be sought in the special 
conditions of Southern hfe and society in the early times. 

In the colonial period the South had practically no hterature. 
But the North was nearly in the same condition. It had writers, 
but very little that deserves the name of Hterature. It was not until 
this country became a nation that literary work of value as compared 
with the finer productions of Europe began to make its appearance. 
We can well understand why this literature was confined to the 
North. The intellect of the South at that time was otherwise 
trained and otherwise employed. PoHtics was the passion of 
Southern thinkers, and oratory one of the principal forms in which 
their thoughts found vent. From the early and passionate outbursts 
of such masters of oratory as Patrick Henry, to the more subdued 
and classical efforts of Richard Henry Lee, "the American Cicero," 
Madison, Marshall, Wirt and others of fame, the literature of oratory 
flourished, the principles of government being set forth with great 
abihty, clearness, and philosophic breadth of appreciation by a series 

473 



474 



Southern Literature 



of speakers and thinkers of fine powers. And political thought was 
by no means confined to oratory. Among the three authors of the 
splendid political essays of the "Federalist," Madison, the Virginian, 
ranked second to Hamilton, the West Indian. It need scarcely be said 
that for pure Engfish and fine powers of reasoning the " FederaUst" 
is a monument to the genius of our early statesmen. Jeff'erson was 
another noted political writer of this time, a man of much cultivation, 
scholarly tastes and high aspirations. As the most famous produc- 
tion of his pen we must needs point to the great American gospel of 

liberty, the "Declaration of Inde- 
pendence," but his writings as a 
whole were full of pith and power. 
We shall, however, not dilate 
upon this subject. While such 
productions evince fine power of 
thought and logical penetration, 
they are not looked upon as litera- 
ture in the ordinary sense. The 
purpose of literature in its usual 
significance is entertainment; in- 
struction entering into it only in a 
minor degree. Of literature, as 
thus defined, the South was practi- 
cally deficient until well within the 
nineteenth century, and though 
ndeared niauy writcrs appeared in the half 
century before the Civil War, they 
were greatly outnumbered and surpassed in reputation by the 
Northern writers of the same period. The reason for this is so 
well put by Thomas Nelson Page, in "The Old South," that it 
seems preferable to give it in his words rather than to offer a sep- 
arate explanation of it. He says: — ■ 

" It has been generally charged, and almost universally beHeved, 
that the want of a literature in the South was the result of intellectual 
poverty. The charge, however, is without foundation, as will be 
apparent to any fair-minded student who considers the position held 
by the South, not only during the period of the formation of the 
Government, but also throughout the long struggle between the South 
and the North over the momentous questions generated by the institu- 




JAMES LANE ALLEN 

The well known Kentucky Author, who has e 

himself to the citizeus of his state by his de 

ful stories of the " Blue-Grass " Region. 



Southern Literature 475 

tion of slavery. In the former crisis the South asserted herself with a 
power and wisdom unsurpassed in the history of intellectual resource ; 
throughout the latter period she maintained the contest with 
consummate ability and with transcendent vigor of intellect. 

"The causes of the absence of a Southern literature are to be 
looked for elsewhere than in intellectual indigence. The intellect- 
ual conditions were such as might well have created a noble litera- 
ture, but the physical conditions were adverse to its production and 
were too potent to be overcome. 

"The principal causes were the following: — • 

" I. The people of the South were an agricultural people, widely 
diffused, and lacking the stimulus of immediate mental contact. 

"2. The absence of cities, which in the history of literary life 
have proved literary foci essential for its production, and the want of 
publishing houses at the South. 

"3. The exactions of the institution of slavery, and the absorp- 
tion of the intellectual forces of the people of the South in the solution 
of the vital problems it engendered. 

"4. The general ambition of the Southern people for political 
distinction, and the application of their hterary powers to polemical 
controversy. 

"5. The absence of a reading public at the South for American 
authors, due in part to the conservatism of the Southern people. 

"No merely agricultural people has ever produced a literature. 
It would appear that for the production of literature some center is 
requisite, where men with literary instincts may commingle, and 
where their thoughts may be focussed. The life of the South was 
in the fields, and its population was so diffused that there was always 
lacking the mental stimulus necessary to the production of a litera- 
ture. There were few towns and yet fewer cities. But these few — 
Baltimore, New Orleans, Charleston, Richmond and Louisville — 
all attested the truth of this observation. From them radiated the 
occasional beams of light which illumined the general darkness of 
the period." 

He further says: "What might not the eloquence and genius 
of Clay have effected had they been turned in the direction of litera- 
ture, or what the mental acumen, the philosophic force, the learning 
of Calhoun, of whom Dr. Dwight said when he left college that the 
young man knew enough to be President of the United States! 



476 Southern Literature 

How much did literature lose when Marshall, Wirt, the Lees, Martin, 
Pinkney, Berrien, Hayne, Preston, Cobb, Celingham, Ruffin, 
Legare, Soule, Davis, Roane, Johnston, Crittenden, devoted all 
their brilliant powers to politics and the law! John Randolph 
boasted that he should *go down to the grave guiltless of rhyme, ' 
yet his letters contain the concentrated essence of literary energy; his 
epigrams stung like a branding-iron, and are the current coin of 
tradition throughout his native state two generations after his death." 

Yet we must not give a false impression by quoting this some- 
what pessimistic view of the paucity of Southern literature. While 
little was done from a comparative point of view, much was achieved. 
While Southern authors of the ante-war period were far fewer than 
those of the North, they were nevertheless considerable in number, 
and some among them men of genius and abihty. This can be best 
shown by naming the leaders among them. 

John Marshall, the great Chief-Justice of the United States, 
found tim^e among his varied duties to write an admirable "Life of 
Washington," which has been called "the first great contribution to 
American historical literature." WiUiam Wirt, distinguished as 
one of the chief lawyers in the prosecution for treason of Aaron Burr, 
produced a very able "Life of Patrick Henry," which has made him 
more famous than all his reputation as a great lawyer. He also 
contributed to literature "The Letters of a British Spy," and "The 
Old Bachelor," works in lighter vein. Jefferson's contribution was 
in his "Notes on Virginia," which attracted general attention 
throughout Europe. Among the more distinctly Hterary authors of 
the early period was Edward Coate Pinkney, whose well-known 
poems, "The Health" and "The Picture Song," have won a fixed 
abiding plane in our literature. His uncle, Ninian Pinkney, pre- 
ceded him in hterary production, writing a book of "Travels in the 
South of France," of which Leigh Hunt said, "It set all the idle 
world to going to France to live on the charming banks of the 
Loire." 

These, and most of the other writers of whom we propose to 
speak, were deeply immersed in the law, there being such slight 
pecuniary returns from literature that few thought of adopting it as a 
profession. Among those lawyers who wrote occasionally as a 
relaxation were the Tuckers of Virginia, a family of writers, who 
have left us poems and essays, and such romances as "The Partisan 



Southern Literature 



477 



Leaders" and "Hansford, a Tale of Bacon's Rebellion," and 
John Pendleton Kennedy, of Maryland, who might have made a 
great name as an author but for the persistent demands of legal and 
political business. We could say the same of a score of others, 
scattered widely throughout the South. 

The openings, indeed, for profitable literary labor in the South 
were few, and many of the authors had to seek publishers or 
periodicals in the North. Of Southern magazines of prominence 
at that period may be named Niles's Register, published in Baltimore 
from 1811 to 1849, and serving 
as a channel for the Pinkneys, 
Kennedy, Francis Scott Key and 
many others. The Southern Re- 
view, published in Charleston from 
1828 to 1832, and followed in suc- 
cession by The Southern Literary 
journal and The Southern Quar- 
terly Review, occupied a useful po- 
sition. Others of utiHty to South- 
ern writers were The Southern and 
Western Magazine and Review, The 
Southern Literary Gazette, The 
Cosmopolitan, The Magnolia, etc., 
in which Simms, Legate, Hayne, 
Timrod, DeBow, and others found 
a channel for the productions of 
their pens. Prentice's Courier 
Journal, of Louisville, opened its SAMUEL langhorne clemens 
columns to literary aspirants, and ''^t^^':Eittt::)^i::rZ::K^::i^ 
made that city the literary center ''''^^:\:'l^'tZ^^TJ^:^'- 
of a wide section, its contributors humorists and authors. 

including such well known authors as Prentice himself, Amelia 
B. Welby, Mrs. Betts, Mrs. Warfield, and Mrs. Jeffrey. The 
Southern Literary Messenger, begun in 1835 at Richmond, Virginia, 
and continued until 1864, was the most noted literary magazine 
of that period which the South produced. Its success was largely 
due to the writings and editorship of Edgar A. Poe, and it was 
supported by the literary talent of Virginia and the South. 
Yet of these magazines we can but quote Page's statement that 




MARK TWAIN' 



478 Southern Literature 

"They enlisted whatever literary ability there was to be secured, but 
they received no encouragement and met with no success. The hab- 
its of life and the expenses of Hfe at the South were against them. " 

Returning to the consideration of the authors, the name of 
Francis Scott Key occurs as the first to produce a poem of enduring 
fame. "The Star-Spangled Banner," written during the bombard- 
ment of Fort McHenry, at Baltimore, in 1814, survives and prom.ises 
long to survive as the most famous national song of America and the 
one with the truest and most distinctive American flavor. Struck out 
in the inspiration of the moment, it has lived down hosts of more 
pretentious productions and elaborately wrought poetic effusions. 

Passing from poetry to romance, we meet as chief among the early 
Southern writers in this field with the name of John Pendleton Ken- 
nedy, above mentioned, author of three novels, "Swallow Barn," 
" Horse-Shoe Robinson," and " Rob of the Bowl, " in which we have 
vivid and pleasing pictures of some of the characteristic aspects 
of Southern Hfe. These productions gave him a position among the 
leading novehsts of his day. Among his other works is the sarire en- 
titled "Annals of Quodlibet." Kennedy, as we have stated, made 
the law and the legislature his business, literature his recreation. Such 
was not the case with William Gilmore Sirnms, of South Carolina, 
one of the very few early Southern writers who pursued literature 
as a profession. Of all the distinctly literary men of the South he 
was the most prolific, his industry being immense, his devotion to 
literature exacting, and his ability high. His pen dealt with poetry, 
romance, history, biography and essay, in all of which he made a 
respectable showing. From his first venture, a volume of poems 
published at Charleston in 1827, till his death in 1870, he toiled 
unceasingly in the field of Southern literature. Though he wrote 
poetry during much of his life, it is as a writer of fiction that his 
name is known. Beginning with "Martin Faber" in 1833, he issued 
novels in rapid succession, most of them based on the romantic fea- 
tures of Southern life. Of these "The Yemassee" is perhaps the 
best, yet most of them were widely read In his day. His works have 
the faults of his time, too much prolixity and description, and too 
great a tendency to wander from his subject, but Poe considered 
him second only to Cooper as a novelist. His choice of subjects 
resembled that of Cooper, and In dealing with Indian heroes he 
doubtless came much nearer than Cooper to the truth of nature. 





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Southern Literature 479 

Somewhat later in time comes the third of the ante-war novel- 
ists of the South, John Esten Cooke, whose best work, however, was 
produced after the war. His early productions included "Leather 
Stocking and Silk," "The Virginia Comedians," "The Last of the 
Foresters," "Bonnybel Vane," and "The Youth of Jefferson." 
Of these "The Virginia Comedians" is looked upon as the best 
novel produced by the South before the war. It is an interesting 
picture of life at Williamsburg, the old capital, in the colonial period. 
To the modern taste its style is high-flown and extravagant, yet it 
may still be read with interest as a live portrayal of colonial times. 
In the Civil War Cooke served on the staff of General Stuart, the 
renowned cavalry leader, and his later works, based partly on this 
war experience, — "Surrey of Eagle's Nest," "Mohun," "Hilt to 
Hilt,"" Hammer and Rapier," and "Wearingof the Gray," — surpass 
in ability those of his early period. Better still are his works in 
biography and history. 

A novelist of earlier date and lesser fame was Dr. William A. 
Carruthers, a native of Virginia who made his native State his theme. 
"The Cavaliers of Virginia, or the Recluse of Jamestown," pub- 
lished in 1832, dealt with the romance of Bacon's Rebellion. The 
novel by which he is best known is "The Knights of the Horseshoe, a 
Traditioner's Tale of the Cocked Hat Gentry in the Old Dominion, " 
based on a famous episode in the history of Virginia of which we 
have elsewhere written. Bacon's Rebellion also gave the cue for 
"Hansford," by St. George Tucker, Jr., a work very popular in its 
day. 

So much for the men; now a word for the women. The writ- 
ings of some of these not only much exceeded in volume nearly all 
the authors we have named, but they were also more successful in 
attracting readers. Best known among the women novelists of the 
class in question were Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, Mrs. Caroline 
Lee Hentz, Mrs. Catharine Ann Warfield, and Miss Augusta J. 
Evans, all of whom found a wide circle of readers in North and 
South alike. Their success gave the inspiration to numerous others, 
and had we space at command we might give the names of some two 
hundred, whose works include novels, poems, sketches of travel, etc. 
Of those named Mrs. Hentz and Mrs. Southworth were very prolific 
and won an immense popularity, though not an enduring fame. 
Among Mrs. Hentz's best romances are "The Mob Cap," "The 



48o Southern Literature 

Planter's Northern Bride," "Linda," and "Rena," while of Mrs. 
Southworth's more than fifty novels, "Retribution," the first, had 
an immense sale, and was followed by "The Deserted Wife," "The 
Missing Bride," and a rapid succession of others. Both these 
authors were born in the North, but they spent their lives in the 
South and wrote on Southern themes, though in a very exaggerated 
and untrustworthy way. Much superior to them in literary ability 
is Mrs. Terhune ("Marion Harland"), who pubhshed before the 
war "Alone," "The Hidden Path," "Moss Side" and "Nemesis." 
These possess a literary character and an artistic touch to which the 
others named did not aspire. 

We have hitherto spoken only in passing of the greatest of all 
the authors of the South, and one of the most original of the writers of 
America, Edgar A. Poe, whose fame has grown with the years and 
who now is held to rank among the ablest poets and sketch writers 
of the world. Among the geniuses of literature there are few names 
whose history is so completely dark and sad. The author of "The 
Raven" and "The Bells," and of those wonderful romances which 
have made his name famous, was the son of a pair of actors on the 
variety stage, and was born in Boston in 1809. His parents, how- 
ever, were of Southern birth and he came of an ancient and honorable 
Maryland family. The death of his mother in Richmond in 181 1 
left her three children to the care of the pubHc. Edgar, who was a 
beautiful and precocious child, was adopted by Mrs. John Allan, by 
whom he was brought up in luxury. He was a brilliant scholar, and 
had the best educational advantages; but at the University of Vir- 
ginia, which he entered at the age of seventeen, he formed the habit 
of drinking, — a habit which wrecked his whole life. After graduat- 
ing, he spent a year in Europe, and became editor of the Southern 
Literary Messenger and afterward of the Gentlemen s Magazine 
and Graham's Magazine. He married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, 
when she was only fourteen years of age, and the two, with Virginia's 
mother, led a life of the deepest poverty for ten years, until his wife's 
death. This marriage, rash and fooHsh as it seems, was one of the 
best things in Poe's life. He was a kind and devoted husband, and 
his wife repaid him with an aff'ection that was little short of worship. 

His career as an author began with the publication in 1827 
of a small volume of poems entitled "Tamerlane and other Poems," 
followed by a second volume two years later, As for the fife of the 



Southern Literature 



481 



poet at this time nothing very creditable can be said. After various 
escapades he was sent to West Point, but here so wilfully neglected 
his military duties that he was court-martialed and dismissed in 183 1. 
This ended his connection with Mr. Allan, who refused him any 
further aid, and he was thrown on his own resources. These soon 
settled into the hard task, at that time, of supporting himself by his 
pen. In 1833 came his first literary success, the story of "The MS. 
found in a Bottle," which won him a prize of one hundred dollars. 
Two years later the marriage above mentioned took place, His 
life after that was a desultory one, 
his pen giving forth productions 
in poetry and prose of extraordi- 
nary originality, yet which yielded 
him little money, while his habits 
grew steadily worse, especially af- 
ter the death of his wife in 1847. 
Two years after that he himself 
died, the victim of drink or opium 
as is usually claimed, though this 
is by some denied. 

Poe ever declared himself a 
Virginian, and, in the opinion of 
Page, his poems "Are as distinctly 
Southern in their coloring, tone 
and temper as Wordsworth's are 
Enghsh. The wild landscape, the 
flower-laden atmosphere, the de- 
licious richness, are their setting, ^^ ^^^^^^ Allan poe 

, , . , . '^ 1 he most original poet or our country 

and a more than tropical passion and the creator of the Short Story. 

interfuses them as unmistakably 

as the air of English lawns and meadows breathes through Tenny- 
son's masterpieces." Yet "the creations of his genius, by reason of 
their very originaHty, were condemned as the ravings of a disordered 
and unbalanced mind, and, unrecognized at home, Poe was forced 
to wander to an alien clime in search of bread. " 

Yet even in the North he failed to receive any adequate reward 
for the productions of his pen. The "Raven," wonderful as are 
its marvelous music and its mystic charm, and wide as became its 
fame, brought the author only ten dollars in cash. What would 

31 




482 Southern Literature 

such a poem bring at the present day, preceded, as it was, by many 
musical poems, any one of which would now give its author a high 
place in the poetic field ? Splendid in rhythm and striking in theme 
and handling as were Poe's poems, many of his prose works have 
gained a still higher place in literature. His short stories created a 
new field, and in their peculiar vein they remain unequaled, while 
for force, art, and originality they are unsurpassed by productions in 
any vein. What is more clever and absorbing than "The Gold 
Bug," in its skilled handling of a cryptogram ? Where is there a 
neater display of detective reasoning than in "The Mystery of 
Marie Paget ?" Who has equaled the somber thrill given by "The 
Fall of the House of Usher?" Poe's stories and poems occupy a 
place in Hterature of their own, each of them standing in its way 
separate and alone. 

It is but just to say, in conclusion of this brief notice of the 
greatest genius of the South, that Poe was much more voluminous as 
a worker in the field of criticism than in that of original composition, 
and that in this direction also he showed fine powers and clear dis- 
crimination.- despite the prejudices and personaHties which made 
their way into his work. In this role he was earhest and best known, 
though his critical writings have sunk from view beneath the stronger 
flow of his original productions. Yet his skill and depth of insight 
as a critic were such that in 1835, by a single review of a crude but 
popular author, he raised the Southern Literary Messenger to the 
level of the best American magazines. He was the first to hail 
Hawthorne as a novelist of the highest rank when he was one of the 
obscurest of writers, and it may be said that in his work in the 
Messenger he inaugurated a new era in American criticism. 

After Poe, of whom shall we speak among the poets of the 
South ? There are others who have done excellent work, even if at 
a more prosaic level. There is Richard Henry Wilde, whose popu- 
lar, " My Life is like the Summer Rose," he seemed himself ashamed 
to acknowledge, as derogatory to his dignity as a lawyer. Quite as 
fine is his "Sonnet to a Mocking Bird." Philip Pendleton Cooke 
seemed equally ashamed of his "Florence Vane" and "Froissart 
Ballads," yet Poe declared the former the sweetest lyric ever written 
in America and it has been translated into many foreign tongues. 
We have already spoken of Pinkney's fine lyrics, and among others 
who won high fame as poets were Henry Timrod and Paul H 



Southern Literature 483 

Hayne. These belong mainly to the period after the war, though 
they had done fine work in the eadier period, the poeric inspiradon 
of their work enritling them to rank next after Poe. 

Among the Southern authors of the period under review it will 
not do to neglect the humorists, who, while few in number, have 
won much reputarion by their keen sense of the ridiculous. Chief 
among them may be named Joseph G. Baldwin, who, like so many 
other writers, was a lawyer by profession, yet who found rime be- 
tween the intervals of his duries at the bar to write his " Flush Times 
of Alabama and Mississippi," one of the raciest collections of sketch- 
es America has yet seen. Two of its characters, "Ovid Bolus, 
Esq." and "Simon Suggs, Jr.," grew as well known in the South 
as "Sam Weller" and "Micky Free" abroad, while the case of 
"Higginbotham versus Swink, Slander," won a wide audience. A 
second writer in the field of humor was Augustus B. Longstreet, of 
Mississippi, whose best known work is his "Georgia Scenes, Charac- 
ters, Incidents, etc., in the First half Century of the Republic." 
WilHam Tappan Thompson won his fame by the humorous character 
of Major Jones, in "Major Jones' Courtship" and other volumes 
with the Major as hero. Yet another was Dr. George W. Bagby, 
of Virginia, whose ''Old Virginia Gentleman" is a highly appreciated 
and beautiful sketch of old-time Southern life and character. 

These are far from all the Southern authors of the period before 
the war. And in addition to those of purely literary handling we 
might have named the historians, biographers, travelers, and writers 
in other fields. In fact our story is by no means all told, but we 
have given enough to show that the South was far from being a 
barren field in that period which is usually spoken of as sadly lack- 
ing in performance, and that it produced authors of whom it could 
justly be proud. The far greater development of Southern Hterature 
since the war shows clearly that there could never have been any 
lack of the literary faculty. What was wanted was opportunity, 
inspiration and an appreciative audience. Literature is a deUcate 
plant, which will not grow without careful culture, and to which 
neglect is apt to be fatal. There were readers in the South in those 
days, numbers of them, but their tastes had been cultivated to the 
enjoyment of the classics of English Hterature, and they gave httle 
welcome to the new thought — given, as it often was, in a form to 
which the term classical could not justly be appHed. 



484 Southern Literature 

The war came, and when it passed away the South was as a 
land under which a vast charge of dynamite had been exploded and 
whose fragments as they fell settled into new forms. The old 
institutions had vanished, old habits of thought were shaken to their 
roots, and the intellect of the South began to run in new channels 
and crystaUize into fresh shapes. The days of the great plantation 
were gone; those of the small farm had come. In the past a 
patriarchal spirit brooded over much of the land. Life moved on in 
quiet dignity, — restful, mellow, genial, courtly, in rustic comfort and 
peace, every man of intellect an oracle for his neighborhood, while 
the changeful spirit elsewhere manifested had little effect upon this 
bucoHc self-content. Such Hterary stir as existed was mainly 
confined to the cities, into which alone the spirit of the modern age 
had deeply penetrated. Charleston, for instance, gathered within its 
hospitable bounds a distinguished coterie of writers, including 
Simms, Hayne, Timrod, and others of fine powers. Other cities 
had their bards and prose writers of eminence, but their products did 
not deeply penetrate the realm of the manor-house, whose readers 
were too well satisfied with their Addison and Pope and other 
favorites of an earlier age to care especially for the writings of their 
own time. The sentiment of many toward literary cultivation is 
shown by one of Pendleton Cooke's neighbors, who, on learning that 
he was the author of "Florence Vane," said, "I wouldn't waste 
time on a damned thing Hke poetry; you might make yourself, with 
all your sense and judgment, a useful man in settling neighborhood 
disputes and difficulties." 

The Civil War changed all that. After it had passed, with its 
dreary aftermath of reconstruction, a new spirit invaded the South. 
The patriarchal era was at an end. Slavery had vanished, and with 
it the manorial life. An active stir pervaded the land. The restless- 
ness and love of change of Yankeedom made its way southward and 
found welcome in men's mind. Agriculture no longer ruled 
supreme. Manufacture and trade came into contest with it for the 
empire of the South. The restful old cities wakened up, population 
flocked into their confines, the rattle of the loom and the ring of the 
hammer drove the genius of rest from their streets, and the restless 
spirit of modernism took full possession of the land. 

With this came the writer and the book. Dozens of new authors 
sprang up and thousands of Southern readers welcomed their works. 



Southern Literature 



485 



It was abundantly proved that the South in no sense lacked literary 
ability; what it had lacked was merely a home audience. The 
readers once gained, the writers were quickly at hand. A new litera- 
ture was developed, with a character of its own. 

It is to this literature that we must turn for the best examples 
of retrospective romance. Idealization has always been the South- 
erner's peculiar gift; in the comparatively successful days before the 
war it was apt to run into bombast 
and grandiloquence, but the dis- 
asters of invasion and conquest 
subdued it to the pastoral, the 
pathetic, the retrospective. In the 
days of slavery politics absorbed 
all the best energies and intellect 
of the South, but after the period 
of reconstruction more than one 
Southerner of promise found in 
literature an attractive vocation. 
In a number of short dialect stories 
of plantation days, as well as in the 
tender, musical, visionary poems of 
Sidney Lanier, the South contribu- 
ted new and artistic elements to 
American literature. Indeed, the 
South is the home of our most 
characteristic short stories. The 
typical Southerner is still imbued 
with an intense local patriotism. 
Every village under his native 
skies is a little world to him. He 
finds compacted within its Hmits many a theme for a brief 
romance, full of human interest. The excitement of its 
vicissitudes in war, the charm of its love scenes, — where 
love is still looked upon as the grand passion, — the pathos of 
the disasters it suffered in the South's defeat, and the quaint humor 
of its colored folk, make a union of elements in the story-teller's 
art. The South has produced at least two authors to do justice to 
these gifts of circumstance. Mr. Thomas Nelson Page depicts in 
his pages the South before the war. Under his hand, an idealizing 




JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS 

The Georgian Author, whose "Uncle 

Remus" stories are known and 

loved the world over. 



486 Southern Literature 

regret beautifies the past till it seems a golden age. He seldom, 
if ever, depicts the meager externals, but he does exquisite justice 
to the poetic aspirations of his countrymen. His tales are pathetic, 
romantic, picturesque, catholic, and toward both races sympathetic 
and appreciative. Of very different temperament is his compeer, 
Mr. Joel Chandler Harris. Mr. Harris's sketches are artistically 
true, not, as is the case with Mr. Page, because they reveal the aspi- 
rations of the old-time Southern temperament, but because of their 
author's alert observations of Hfe as it is. He is alive with a vitahty 
which makes for cheerfulness, quickness, deftness, appreciativeness. 
Though he deals with a passing, if not a past, civilization, he looks 
back to it neither regretfully, nor inimically, nor indifferently. He 
even goes to it for invigoration. Though there is pathos in his 
stories, they are full of hope and freshness of life. On the one hand 
he does not touch such deep chords as does Mr. Page; on the other, 
he is more vivacious and stimulating. 

In poetry Sidney Lanier holds the post of honor, as Poe's 
greatest successor in the new days after the war. Born in 1842, 
Lanier served in many of the battles of the war, and was afterward 
captured as captain of a blockade runner and held for five months in 
imprisonment, being finally discharged without money and without 
health, and with a hard struggle before him in the world. His first 
book, "Tiger Lilies," a novel, depicted his romantic adventures in 
war times. Entering warmly into literature, and especially into 
poetry, the remainder of his short life was given to the making of 
books. His poems were usually elaborately wrought, in consonance 
with his theory that poetry is one of the varieties of music and that 
symphonies in verse may be produced. But many of his verses were 
as limpid and spontaneous as bird-songs. With all its shortcom- 
ings, his verse is a noble addition to American literature, and must 
in time win greater appreciation than it has yet received. 

Hayne, who has with justice been called "The Laureate of the 
South," and Timrod, whose sympathy with nature was warm and 
true, resumed their literary careers after the war, which had swept 
away all their belongings and forced them to trust to the pen for a 
livelihood. Timrod, indeed, was brought to the verge of actual 
starvation, and misfortune pursued him till his death. Hayne, far 
the more prolific of these two writers, was an able lyrist, of whom we 
are told, "His verse displays the wealth and warmth of the landscape 



Southern Literature 487 

of South Carolina, the loneliness of the pine barrens where nature 
seems unmolested, or the swish of the wild Southern sea." He 
made himself the lyric poet of the war, doing for the South what 
Whittier had done for the North. 

Of other poets of the period in review we must name the dialect 
writers Irwin Russell and Stephen C. Foster. The songs of the 
latter, homely and true to nature, like the favorite "Old Folks at 
Home" and "Old Kentucky Home," still have a vital survival, 
holding their own against the host of more recent songs. Of the 
later poets of the South we shall have nothing to say. Their names 
are bewilderingly numerous. Shake the woods of Southern litera- 
ture and a full flock of these winged bards will fly out, humble song- 
sters, no doubt, most of them, but among them a goodly number who 
have made their mark and hold a well-earned place in the pantheon 
of American poesy. 

Descending from the heights of the muse, we find among the 
new prose writers of the South a multitude who have won well- 
deserved honors in the domain of literature, and who count their 
readers by the myriad in all sections of the land. Fiction has been 
the great field worked by these writers, and it has been well and 
skilfully wrought. Their ruling theme has been the many-sided 
life of the South, especially in its less familiar aspects, while its 
ordinary phases have often been treated with a freshness and fidelity 
which give to their writings vitality and charm. 

None of these writers has done fresher and more picturesque 
work than George Washington Cable, whose word-pictures of the 
Louisiana Creole are of the finest quality and most enduring worth. 
Born in New Orleans, he was fully familiar with the modes of life 
and thought of the Creoles, a distinct people, with the blood of old 
France and Spain in their veins, surviving drowsily in the midst of 
the wide-awake Americanism. His sketches of those people in "Old 
Creole Days" made an instant hit, and was followed by other works 
which kept the interest well alive. Chief among these were "The 
Grandissimes, " "Madame Delphine," and "Dr. Sevier," in which 
are admirably depicted the characteristics of this strange people 
and their unique social system. 

The period of the restoration was also distinguished by the 
beginning of another series of novels depicting a people fully as 
peculiar as the Creoles and living as far outside of the swishing 



488 



Southern Literature 



currents of modern life. Those were the mountaineers of Eastern 
Tennessee, the dwellers on the hills and in the valleys of the Great 
Smoky Mountains, whom a new writer, Mary Noailles Murfree, 
long known only as "Charles Egbert Craddock," first presented to 
the world of readers after 1880. She was a native of the soil and 
knew its people well, with all their oddities and peculiarities, and her 

*'In the Tennessee Mountains" 
immediately attracted a wide 
circle of readers, whose interest 
was kept up by "The Prophet 
of the Great Smoky Mountains, " 
and the various other novels that 
followed from her pen in the 
same field of fiction. 

Cable and Miss Murfree were 
by no means alone in this pho- 
tographic handling of new scenes 
and strange phases of life. 
Among their compeers we may 
name Alice French, ''Octave 
Thanet," who has made the 
world familiar with the cane- 
brake region of Arkansas and 
the rustic dwellers therein. Joel 
Chandler Harris, of whose deft 
sketches of Southern life we have 
already spoken, made himself 
the spokesman of the old negro 
life and superstitions of Georgia 
in a way that gave him world- 
wide fame. There is nothing 
in folk lore to surpass in charm the inimitable animal lore of 
"Uncle Remus," with "Brer Rabbit" as the hero of the old negro's 
tales. Harris does not stand alone in giving the negro a place in 
literature. Among his other biographers may be named Ruth 
McEnery Stuart, whose tales are brimful of genial humor. Thomas 
Nelson Page, as we have already said, has brought again upon the 
stage the landed gentry of old Virginia. Richard Malcolm Johnston, 
who dates back somewhat earlier, has humorously but faithfully 




JOHN TROTW^OOD MOORE 

One of the new authors of the New South. 
Author of " The ' Bishop' of Cotton- 
town" and other Southern stories. 



Southern Literature 489 

depicted life in Georgia, in his "Georgia Sketches," "Old Times in 
Middle Georgia," and the like. Grace King has followed Cable in 
the portrayal of Creole life and character; and many others who 
might be named have added to the portrait gallery of local life and 
character in the South, so auspiciously begun. 

Among the writers of recent date must be especially mentioned 
James Lane Allen, a Kentuckian to the manor born, who has 
opened a vein of poetic prose rich in psychological analysis and 
delightful alike in its depth and its lucidity. First and one of the best 
of his works was "John Gray," later on revised and repubhshed as 
"The Choir Invisible," whose depth of thought and insight and fine 
touch of introspection made it widely famous. His " Kentucky 
Cardinal," "A Summer in Arcady, " "Aftermath," etc., are equally 
instinct with poetic feeling and fine description. 

The name of Allen brings us down to our own days and to a 
circle of authors far too numerous for us to mention in detail. It 
must suffice to name among them Miss Johnston, with her romantic 
historical novels, "To Have and to Hold," and others; Miss Glas- 
gow, a rival of Page in tales of Virginia life, and especially of the 
humble career of the poor whites; Sara Barnwell EUiot, whose stories 
so ably depict life in Tennessee and Georgia; Francis Hopkinson 
Smith, a Maryland author whose "Colonel Carter of Cartersville," 
"Tom Grogan," and other works well warrant his admission to the 
modern Pantheon. These are given merely as examples. There 
are others abundantly worthy of naming, but the Southern literature 
of late date is too abundant to seek to do it full justice in the space of 
a chapter. It is by no means confined to poetry and fiction, as 
might appear from the names we have given, our warrant for doing 
so being that these are among the most distinctive forms in works 
of literature as technically Hmited. 

If now we seek to gauge the depths of this literature of the New 
South, we find in it a freshness and truth to nature which are some- 
what lacking in the work of the older writers. Over much of the 
latter, as it has been said, there is "the trail of the amateur, the note 
of the province, the odor of the wax flower. " In the latter we find 
evidence of a new and powerful impulse which has given the work of 
the writers a continental audience. The production of the Southern 
author no longer goes begging, but is gladly welcomed and widely 
read. Divided from the Old South by the war, having before him 



490 Southern Literature 

the recollections of a generous and serene life which no longer exists, 
the writer of to-day has a rich and ample background for his labor 
of thought. A broad and fine perspective stretches backward, filled 
with pictures of a past that will return no more. Before him lie the 
broad plantation; the noble manor-house, with its ease, repose, 
comfort and courthness; the gentleman of the old school, imperious 
but kindly and high-minded; narrow in his views of Hfe, yet born 
with a genius for pubHc affairs; Hving Hke a patriarch among his 
troop of contented and happy slaves — all these scenes, vanished yet 
familiar, seen through a glass of memory that softens all harsh out- 
lines, give the Southern writer an ample field for the exercise of his 
powers of Hterary art. Then, there is the negro, with his quaintness 
of expression, simpHcity of character, unconscious humor, rich 
dialect, an element that kindly offers itself to the hand of the word 
artist, like Page in fiction, Harris in folk-lore, Russell in dialect verse, 
or to name a recent author of his own race, Paul Dunbar in fiction 
and verse alike. 

The work of the writers of the South is not simply that of the 
study of new localities and peculiar people. It has a distinct char- 
acteristic of its own which separates it from the hterature of the 
North. It is full of a richer coloring and warmer blood. Let us 
compare Hawthorne with Page, and we find ourselves passing from 
a world of introspective thought and deep mental analysis into one of 
vital action. Here we pass out of the land of deep-spun problems 
of living into a land of fife itself; from the keen and clever dissection 
of character in repose to the display of character in action. It is a 
world of story of which we never tire, a world of heroes who charge 
to the cannon's mouth, of simple-hearted servants whose fideHty 
no temptation can overcome, of women who seem to belong to the 
famous heroines of the past. And with this full throb of living 
impulse, we have also the tropic warmth and color of the Southland, 
a rich and glowing atmosphere which differs essentially from the 
colder skies and landscapes of the North. The Southern writer 
does not lose himself in a maze of analytic thought, as is the habit 
with many writers of the North, but moves freely and jovially on, 
painting for us fair women and brave men, full of warm and living 
impulses, and set in a background of glowing tropical scenery which 
only the sun of the South can call into life. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

HISTORIC CITIES OF THE SOUTH 
ATLANTIC STATES 

Baltimore, its history and industries — Richmond and its features of interest — Norfolk, 
Virginia's chief seaport — ^Wilmington and the Blockade runners — Raleigh, the 
city of oaks — Charlotte and Asheville — Charleston and its history — Its attrac- 
tions and industries — Columbia, a busy capital city — Savannah, Georgia's 
pioneer cit)^ — ^The port of Brunswick — Atlanta, the young giant of the South — ■ 
The progress of Augusta — Macon and its advantages — Columbus and what it 
stands for — Antique St. Augustine — Jacksonville, Pensacola, Tampa and Key 
West. 

IN the preceding chapters we have dealt with the South mainly 
in its general aspects, detailing its political, social, and 
industrial conditions, the characteristics of its population, 
its products of the farm, the forest and the mine, its educational and 
literary development. In the few following chapters we propose to 
be more local in our treatment, passing from the field to the city, and 
describing the various thriving centers of population which have 
grown up upon its extended area, beginning with the older cities of 
the Atlantic slope and making our way gradually over the land. 

While many of the cities with which we here propose to deal 
possess great historic interest, several of them dating back to the 
earliest date of colonization in the South, our purpose is descriptive 
rather than historical, to tell what these cities stand for to-day rather 
than what they stood for in the past. In dealing with them, there- 
fore, we shall touch their history with a light hand, and devote our 
attention mainly to their present status and the position to which 
they have attained in the record of development of the South. 

Chief among the South Atlantic cities and, with one exception, 
the most populous city of the Southern states, stands Baltimore, the 
metropolis of Maryland, the leading seaport of the South and one of 
the most interesting cities of the Union. Founded in 1729, and 
named after Lord Baltimore, the proprietary of Maryland, in i745» 

491 



492 Historic Cities 

it is the nearest of Southern cities of note to Mason and Dixon's 
Line, the northern border of the Southland area. The history of 
Bakimore has not been a stirring one. Its medium situation kept 
it afar from the tide of war, which at intervals overflowed the North 
and South alike. Only once in Baltimore's career was it threatened 
by war's ravaging hand. This was in 1814, when the British fleet 
under Admiral Cockburn, after the foul deed of burning the national 
capital, sailed up the Chesapeake with intent to make Baltimore 
its prey. For nineteen hours it poured shot and shell upon Fort 
McHenry, the military outpost of the city, and then withdrew in 
dismay from the hot lire of the valiant sons of Maryland. Lord 
Ross, the army commander, landed and marched on Baltimore, 
saying that he did not care if "it rained militia." It rained bullets, 
one of which stretched him dead on the field, and the assailants 
of Baltimore retired bafiled to their ships. The attack on the 
Monumental City left as a heritage of proud remembrance to Ameri- 
can hearts the noble national song, "The Star-Spangled Banner," 
which was written by a Baltimorean detained on the British fleet, 
Francis Scott Key. 

Other events of interest in the history of Baltimore are the fact 
that it was the first American city to use illuminating gas, that from 
it was built the first passenger railroad in the United States, and that 
the first telegraph line began within its limits, stretching south to- 
ward Washington. The first news message ever sent by wire was 
from Baltimore, telling of the result of the presidential convention 
held in that city in 1844. Since that date Baltimore has gone on 
growing and improving, its chief history being one of steady advance 
in industry and commerce. Long has it been famous for the loveli- 
ness of its women and the excellence of its cuisine, the neighboring 
Chesapeake Bay being the chosen feeding ground of the delicious 
canvas-back duck, and the home of the aristocratic diamond-back 
terrapin, the soft-shell crab, and oysters of the choicest varieties. 
These dehcacies, when prepared by Baltimore cooks, are of unrivaled 
excellence. 

Admirably seated for commerce on the broad and deep Patapsco, 
twelve miles from Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore has grown into the 
position of one of the leading commercial cities of the United States; 
its foreign trade, alike in exports and imports, having grown to 
enormous dimensions. Steamers run from its wharves to all the 



Historic Cities 493 

chief European ports, and it enjoys an immense coastwise trade. 
It was at an early date a grain and flour market of importance, and 
now is one of our principal centers of export for grain, tobacco and 
petroleum, while iron, cofi^ee, salt and many other articles are largely 
imported. Its numerous railroads make it a favorite shipping point 
for western produce. In manufactures it has also risen to a position 
of great importance, its iron-mills, sugar-refineries, ship-yards, 
cotton mills, and other industries making it prominent among local- 
ities of productive industry. With a population of only 8000 in 1 782, 
and 31,514 in 1800, in 1900 it had passed the half million mark, 
its population being 508,957. 

Baltimore has much to recommend it aside from its business 
record. It is in many respects a place of great attraction, and has 
won the name of the Monumental City from its numerous monu- 
ments. Its public features of interest include the Johns Hopkins 
University, in its special field unapproached among the educational 
institutions of the United States, the nobly endowed Enoch-Pratt 
Free Library; the venerable Cathedral, famous in American 
Catholic history; the Norman basihca of St. Paul's, an EpiscopaHan 
temple of worship; the noble Peabody Institute; the Masonic 
Temple; the Odd Fellows Hall; and various other buildings of 
striking character. Chief among its celebrated monuments is the 
column of Maryland marble 180 feet in height, known as the 
Washington Monument, and crowned with a statue of the noblest 
son of the South. Battle Monument, a small Egyptian temple of 
marble, supporting a colossal fasces, in which stands a statue repre- 
senting the city of Baltimore, is in memory of the heroes who fell in 
defending this city in 1814. In addition there are numerous statues 
dedicated to the leading men of Baltimore and Maryland. 

Chief among the pleasure grounds of the city is Druid Hill 
Park, a picturesque tract of 700 acres, famous for its noble oaks, 
and containing a fine old colonial mansion, dating back to 1688. 
The drives and rambles, lakes and fountains, bridges and statues, 
towers and kiosks, and other special features of the park add much 
to its beauty, and the citizens of Baltimore are justly proud of their 
noble place of pubHc resort. The waterworks of the city bring 
water from Lake Raven, on the Gunpowder River, to the great 
reservoirs at Clifton and Druid Hill Park, the water passing through 
a five mile tunnel cut through solid gneiss rock. 



494 Historic Cities 

Passing southward in our journey and leaving behind us the 
noble city of Washington, in many respects the most beautiful the 
world possesses, — but which, though built on Southern soil, belongs 
to the whole nation as the capital of the Union, — we come to Vir- 
ginia's capital, historic Richmond, seated charmingly on the James, 
and attractive in a score of ways. 

Richmond is far surpassed in antiquity by venerable Williams- 
burg, the old capital of the state, founded in 1632, yet little more than 
a village still, with ancient William and Mary College as its one 
point of interest. Richmond was founded in 1737, more than a 
century later, but has gone far beyond the other cities of the Old 
Dominion in its growth, attaining in 1900 a population of 85,050, 
without counting its populous suburbs. The city is well situated 
for a career of prosperity. Seated at the head of tide-water on the 
James River, 150 miles from its mouth, it can be reached by vessels 
drawing fourteen feet of water, while the river in the upper part of 
the city breaks beautifully into rapids, and the James River Falls, 
just above the city, furnish immense water-power for the rolling 
mills, paper works, flour mills, and other active industries of the city. 
Richmond has also large iron works and extensive tobacco factories. 

The situation of Richmond is beautiful and picturesque. Like 
Rome, it is said to be built on seven hills, though its hills at the 
present day number more than seven. From the summits of some 
of them there are fine outlooks over the city and the surrounding 
section of the state, with the winding James as the prominent feature. 
The summit of one of these elevations — Shockoe Hill — is occupied 
by the State Capitol, built in 1 796, and of very attractive architectural 
features, it being modeled closely after the Maison Carree, a noble 
Roman structure still standing at Nimes, France. This handsome 
edifice stands in the center of a square some ten acres in extent, 
which contains also the State Library buildings and some fine 
examples of statuary. Chief among these is the handsome 
equestrian statue of Washington, the work of Crawford, the sculptor, 
and unsurpassed for artistic beauty in the country. There are also 
fine statues of Henry Clay and Stonewall Jackson, and in the rotunda 
of the State-House is the highly artistic statue of Washington by 
Houdon, executed in 1785 and a noble presentation of the "Father 
of his Country." Richmond possesses other statuary of much 
merit. In Lee Centre, a verdant space occupying the crossing of 



Historic Cities 495 

two wide streets in the west end of the city, stands a noble equestrian 
statue of General Lee; and in the very handsome Jefferson hotel — 
or what remains of it from a recent conflagration — is a beautiful mar- 
ble statue of Jeflerson, which was fortunately rescued from the fire. 

Richmond has been the capital of Virginia since 1779. In 1861 
it was chosen as the capital of the Confederate States Government, 
and during the war was twice subjected to a long siege, in addition 
to attempts to capture it by cavalry raids. But it defied all efforts at 
capture until the flanking movement of April, 1865, rendered its 
hasty evacuation necessary. Much of the city was burned in the 
conflagration that followed, but since that period its former beauty 
has been fully restored, and its prosperity and importance immensely 
enhanced. 

The Richmond of to-day possesses many monuments of his- 
torical interest. In the old St. John's Church is pointed out the pew 
in which Patrick Henry stood when he delivered his famous oration 
of 1775, ending with the spirit-stirring words, ''Give me hberty, 
or give me death!" At a quiet corner of Broad Street stands the 
large two-storied mansion in which lived and died John Marshall, 
the great Chief-Justice of the United States. Eastward on the same 
street is the handsome residence which served as the "White House" 
of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and which is now fitly 
converted into a Confederate Museum. In the street beside it rests 
the propellor shaft of the famous iron-ciad Merrimac. Finally, in 
the beautifully situated Hollywood Cemetery in the western part 
of the city, rest the remains of two Presidents of the United States, 
Monroe and Tyler, and of Jeff"erson Davis, President of the Con- 
federate States, beside whose grave rises the beautiful marble angel 
placed above the tomb of his daughter, Winnie Davis. 

Of Virginia's remaining cities, the largest, and the one or most 
importance in a business sense, is Norfolk, which may claim to 
possess the finest port on the Atlantic south of New York. Seated 
on the east bank of Elizabeth River, eight miles from Hampton 
Roads, it boasts a harbor of splendid proportions, ranking among 
the most capacious in the world. Here may be seen the sails of 
every maritime nation, and the ships of Norfolk sail to every sea, 
the city having a large and growing ocean commerce. The steam- 
ship lines engaged in foreign and domestic trade number fully a 
score, and the value of the exports reaches many miUions of dollars. 



49^ Historic Cities 

Prominent among them is the produce of a large section of the back 
country, brought to Norfolk by its abundant railroad facilities. 
Hundreds of vessels leave the harbor in the summer season, laden 
with berries, melons and other fruits and vegetables for the northern 
market. 

In the near vicinity of Norfolk are several popular seaside 
resorts, chief among them the renowned Old Point Comfort, on the 
point of land occupied by Fortress Monroe. Between this place 
and Norfolk stretch the historic waters of Hampton Roads, into 
which flow the James and the Elizabeth Rivers, and which was the 
scene of one of the most famous events in naval history, the mighty 
battle of the pioneer ironclads, the Merrimac and the Monitor. It 
is not our purpose here to give the details of this epoch-making 
conflict, with which all readers of history are familiar, and it must 
suffice to say that the Merrimac was Hfted from the bottom of 
Norfolk harbor to prepare her for her remarkable career, and that 
she went to rest again on the harbor bottom at the close of her brief 
but eventful history. 

Norfolk, aside from its busy commerce, possesses active manu- 
facturing industries — ship-building, iron works, and agricultural 
implements being among them. The population in 1900 reached the 
respectable total of 46,624, not counting the people of Portsmouth, 
on the opposite side of the river, with its navy yard and dry dock. 
Among the features of historical interest is old St. Paul's Church, a 
century and a half old, in whose ivy-covered walls is imbedded a 
cannon ball, fired from a ship of Lord Dunmore's fleet at the opening 
of the Revolution. In revenge for his defeat by the provincials at 
Great Bridge, the incensed royal governor attacked and burned 
Norfolk, then a city of 6,000 inhabitants. While on this subject we 
cannot justly pass over the great shipbuilding plant at Newport 
News, a city on Hampton Roads in the vicinity of Norfolk. Here 
some of the great vessels of the United States Navy have been built, 
and there are contracts on hand sufficient to employ the 7,000 or 
8,000 hands of the immense works for some years to come. South- 
ern industry has estabHshed itself here to stay. 

The "Old North State" possesses for its commercial and busi- 
ness metropolis the city of Wilmington, situated on Cape Fear River, 
34 miles from its mouth. Large vessels ascend to this point, and 
sloops can sail nearly a hundred miles farther up the stream. Where 



Historic Cities 497 

Wilmington now stands Was originally a town named Newton, laid 
out in 1733. Six years afterward the name was changed to Wil- 
mington, and the place emerged into civic dignity in 1866. Its 
population was then about 12,000; it is now over 20,000. During 
the Civil War it was an especially active place, as one of the few 
open ports of the Confederacy, and the one that latest held open 
intercourse with the sea. Here came blockade runners in numbers, 
disdaining the Federal fleet which hung round the river's mouth, 
and dashing into port with goods of inestimable value in that period 
of stress and strain. In a single year 300 vessels ran the gauntlet of 
the blockading fleet, carrying outward more than 100,000 bales of 
cotton and bringing back goods just then more precious than 
diamonds. In 1864 Admiral Porter and General Butler sought to 
close the port, by capturing Fort Fisher, at the river's mouth, but 
found they had undertaken too large a task. Early in 1865 Porter 
and General Terry succeeded in capturing the port and closing the 
stream — not for long, as it happened, for the close of the war soon 
opened it again. 

Wilmington is to-day a busy mart of commerce, with a large 
foreign trade, and with steamship Hnes to the chief northern cities. 
The principal articles of trade are lumber, naval stores and cotton. 
The abundant pine woods of the locahty yield great quantities of 
turpentine and rosin, products which never want a market. 

Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, is situated about 148 
miles north by west from Wilmington, on an elevated tract of land 
in the upper valley of the Neuse River. Selected as the seat of 
government in 1788, it was laid out in 1792 and made a city in 1794. 
It is a handsomely laid-out city, with a central square of about ten 
acres, from which four wide streets radiate, and in which stands the 
domed and dignified capitol, built of granite, and very attractive 
in architecture. The fine old trees which have come down from 
the original forests have given this place the title of "City of Oaks. " 
There are various other state edifices, educational and other institu- 
tions, among them the Shaw Institute for the higher education of 
colored pupils. Raleigh had in 1900 13,643 inhabitants, and is 
a central point of trade in cotton and tobacco, while it possesses a 
variety of manufacturing establishments. 

Charlotte, a progressive city with a population of 18,000, lies 
in the gold-bearing region of the State, and formerly had the honor 
32 



49S Historic Cities 

of possessing a United States Mint, which is still in active existence 
as an Assay-office, Among the recent manufacturing cities of the 
South, Charlotte has an excellent standing. It has a number of 
cotton mills, and is a central point in this industry, there being more 
than 200 mills within a hundred miles surrounding. Among its 
various manufactures that of clothing stands high, the place having 
the reputation of being the greatest producer of trousers in the 
country. The celebrated Mecklenburg Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, of May 20, 1775, was made in this city, and it is proposed to 
erect a monument to the signers of this document of defiance to 
England and its king on the spot fronting the court-house, where 
this event took place. 

Passing to the ruggedly picturesque "Land of the Sky," the 
broad mountain region of North Carolina, we meet with various 
popular summer resorts, chief among them Asheville, a mountain 
town of charming situation and possessing over 14,000 inhabitants. 
This city has a greater elevation than any other east of Denver, its 
altitude being 2,300 feet above sea level. It stands in the midst of 
mountain scenery of the greatest grandeur and beauty and has the 
double advantage of attracting winter guests from the North and 
summer guests from the South, who ahke find here health and 
recreation. Chief among the many beautiful residences in its 
vicinity is George Vanderbilt's magnificent country home of Bilt- 
more, the costliest private residence in the United States. The cost 
of the building is said to have been ^3,000,000, while as much more 
has been expended upon the magnificent grounds and the vast estate, 
a hundred thousand acres in area. Throughout the region under 
survey are numerous other delightful places of resort for tourists in 
quest of health or of the beautiful in mountain scenery. 

South Carolina has the honor of possessing one of the most 
famous and historically interesting cities of the South, the long 
renowned sea-port of Charleston, after Baltimore the chief Southern 
city on the Atlantic slope. It dates back to the very earliest settle- 
ment of the state. In 1670 two shiploads of immigrants from Eng- 
land settled on the bank of the Ashley River, at a locarion which, 
ten years later, they abandoned for a new one on the peninsula 
between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. They called their new 
settlement Charlestown, after King Charles II. In time this became 
shortened to Charleston. 



Historic Cities 



499 



From its origin events of interest have centered around this city. 
Here the culture of rice in America first began, in the planting of a 
small bag of rice which a sea-captain brought from Madagascar 
in 1693. It quickly proved a very valuable article of agriculture, and 
hundreds flocked to that region to engage in its cultivation. In 1741 
a daughter of Governor Lucas tried to cultivate the indigo plant. 
She fought against the discouragement of frost and worms for three 
years, and finally succeeded. Indigo proved a profitable crop, and 
its culture spread until Charleston came to export over a million 
pounds in a single year. At a later date cotton drove out indigo, but 
the growth of rice in its vicinity has continued actively to this day. 

The history of 
Charleston is abund- 
antly diversified by 
events of war, more so 
than that of any other 
American city. In 1706 
it was attacked by a 
Spanish and French 
fleet, but the citizens 
defended themselves 
bravely and drove off 
their assailants with 
heavy loss. A few years 
afterward it was threat- 
ened with destruction 

by a great Indian raid, ^^^ park, CHARLESTON, south Carolina 
and early in the Revo, 

lutionary War it was attacked by a powerful British fleet. But 
Colonel Moultrie, in the fort afterward honored with his name, 
defeated the British by sea and land and saved the city from 
their grasp. In 1780 it was besieged by a powerful army under 
General Clinton, the seige lasting forty days. It did not surrender 
until after a bombardment for forty-eight hours by two hundred 
cannon. From this point the Carolinas were overrun by British 
armies, and the British held on to the city till the end of 1782. 

Something very like war threatened Charleston during the 
nullification excitement of 1832, when President Jackson sent 
Farragut with a naval force to its harbor, and ordered General 




Soo Historic Cities 

Scott to occupy it with troops. Fortunately the dangerous crisis 
passed without coming to blows, and peace reigned until the spring 
of 1 86 1, when the great Civil War was inaugurated by the bombard- 
ment of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. From that time to the 
end of the war the city was closely blockaded by a strong Federal 
fleet, yet it held its own stoutly against bombardment and assault 
until February 17, 1865, when Sherman's great army, sweeping up 
from the south, forced the Confederate garrison to withdraw from 
an irresistible assault by sea and land. During these long four 
years of siege fire did much more damage than shot and shell. A 
great conflagration which broke out in 1861 laid half the city in ashes, 
and the burning of the great cotton warehouses after the evacuation 
in 1865 added to the area ox ruin. Twenty-one years afterward, on 
August 31, 1886, the city was shaken by the most violent earthquake 
to that time known in the United States, nearly seven thousand of its 
buildings being destroyed or seriously injured, and damage done 
amounting to millions of dollars. But shot nor shell nor earth- 
quake shock could check the prosperity of the good old city, and to- 
day it stands as one of the most beautiful and progressive cities of the 
South. 

Charleston has an architecture all its own, and still retains 
many of the quaint characteristics of its early Huguenot days. Its 
streets are broad and spacious and are abundantly shaded by the 
Pride of India and other handsome trees. From its verdant and 
aristocratic Battery it faces a broad harbor, the resort of a multitude 
of ships, among them those of steamship lines to all the great sea- 
ports of the Union from Boston to Savannah. Up to some eighty 
years ago the commerce of Charleston surpassed that of New York, 
and it is still of much importance, the chief exports being cotton, 
naval stores, and phosphate rock, the latter obtained abundantly 
from the banks and bed of the Ashley River. The harbor of 
Charleston, though rather difficult of access, gives an abundance of 
deep water close up to the wharves, beside which vessels of consider- 
able draught lie moored. 

The city itself is one of acknowledged attractiveness, its streets 
presenting a varied succession of public buildings and private resi- 
dences, many of the latter being adorned with piazzas and embower- 
ed in luxuriant foliage. Charleston was incorporated as a city in 
1783, and was the state capitol till 1787, when a more central location 



Historic Cities 5°! 

was chosen at Columbia. Of its many institutions, one of the most 
ancient is the Medical College of the state, founded in 1785. The 
city, with its 55,000 population, is very active industrially, much its 
most important article of manufacture being that of fertilizers, for 
which it has abundant material in the near-by phosphate rock. 
The capital employed in manufacture showed the great increase 
between 1880 and 1900 from ^1,718,300 to $12,473,187. 

Going inland from Charleston to a distance of 124 miles, we 
meet on the Congaree River, below the junction of the Saluda and 
the Broad, the city of Columbia, the capital and one of the handsom- 
est towns of the State. It lies in a fine location, at the head of 
navigation on the Congaree, and is laid out in the rectangular 
method, covering an area of over ten square miles, and having a 
population in 1900 of 21,108. The houses, as a rule, are built of 
wood, and are prettily sheltered by parterres of trees. The town, 
founded as the capital of the State in 1787, has as its most venerable 
building the College of South Carolina, a thriving institution with 
a large and valuable library. There are various other educational 
institutions, while the city possesses a fine granite State-House, 
erected at a cost of $3,000,000. 

Columbia is an active center of manufactures, ranking next 
to Charleston in this particular. The Columbia Canal, three and a 
half miles long, furnishes ten thousand horse-power within the city 
limits, which is used in the cotton and other mills of the city. It is 
of interest that the first extensive use of electricity in cotton manu- 
facture in the United States was at Columbia, 1340 horse-power 
being employed. Pelzer, another center of cotton manufacture in 
this state, came second with 3,000 horse-power. It is also a matter 
of interest that South Carolina has been engaged in the manufacture 
of cotton goods nearly back to the colonial period, a factory for 
weaving homespun having been founded at Murray's rerry, by 
Scotch-Irish settlers, several years before 1790. From 1870 to 1890 
the state ranked second only to Georgia in Southern cotton weaving 
and in 1900 it stood first in the South and second only to Massa- 
chusetts in the whole country. The goods manufactured are 
mostly of the coarser grades, large quantities of which have of late 
years been exported to China. 

Of the centers of cotton manufacture in the state Columbia 
stands in the lead, it possessing several large mills. There are also 



502 Historic Cities 

in this city two large mills for the production of cotton-seed oil, 
together with hosiery mills, fertiHzer factories, machine shops, wood- 
working plants, etc. The great electric power-house, with its 
eight huge turbines of 1,250 horse-power each, is a sight worth 
visiting the city to see, the power being readily delivered in any part 
of the city, while there is no cheaper source of power anywhere in the 
country. 

We may say further in praise of the South CaroHna capital that 
it is a city with a charming winter climate, and is unsurpassed as a 
health resort. Standing on a spur of the Piedmont hills, 350 feet 
above the sea, it is beautifully laid out in streets 100 to 150 feet wide, 
with fine shade trees in double or triple rows. Every residence, 
even the humblest, stands apart from its neighbors in its own 
garden, the city being essentially a city of gardens, many of them 
very beautiful. Of its history, it must suffice to speak of the great 
conflagration which followed the visit of Sherman's army to this city 
in 1865 and which left it a heap of ruins. 

Among the manufacturing states of the South Georgia takes 
a high rank, it having several cities of large population which, while 
possessing active industries, are highly attractive from situation 
and beauty of architecture and adornment. Occupying the leading 
place among these are Atlanta and Savannah, the former, with a 
population of 89,872, the latter nearly equaling Charleston in size, 
with its 54,244 people. Among the cities of the state Savannah 
must be given first place on the score of its antiquity and its historical 
interest. When Oglethorpe brought out his first colony of debtors, 
rescued from the English prisons, in i y^^, they chose a place of settle- 
ment in a picturesque spot near the mouth of the Savannah River, 
giving the town the same name as the river. For a whole year 
Oglethorpe dwelt here in a tent, set up under four pine trees. 
Others besides debtors soon sought the colony, — including German 
Moravians and Lutherans and Scotch Highlanders, who gave a new 
impulse to the settlement. The colony had its subsequent tale of 
war. A hot contest broke out between the British in Georgia and 
the Spaniards in Florida, but scarcely the wind of this reached 
Savannah, whose first experience of war's havoc came in 1778, when 
it was attacked and captured by the British. In the following year 
General Lincoln, aided by a French fleet, sought to recapture it, but 
met with one of the most serious defeats of the Revolutionary 



Historic Cities 503 

struggle. In the assault more than a thousand of the American 
force were killed, among them Count Pulaski, a noble Pole who had 
joined the Am.ericans, and the brave Sergeant Jasper, the hero of 
Fort Moultrie. In December, 1864,3 second army marched into its 
streets, that of General Sherman, Savannah being the chosen goal 
of his devastating march across Georgia. 

Such is Savannah historically. Industrially there is one nota- 
ble point in its record. It was in its vicinity that Eli Whitney, in 
1792, made his famous invention of the cotton-gin, the most signifi- 
cant event in the industrial history of our country, which owes to it 
one of its greatest sources of wealth. Picturesquely it may claim to 
be one of the most beautiful cities in the South. Standing on a 
sandy plain, forty feet above the broad Savannah River, it presents 
a panorama of wide streets delightfully shaded with beautiful trees, 
and made doubly charming by dozens of attractive small parks. 

Almost in the city's center is Forsyth Place, thickly planted with 
forest pines, in which stands a monument to the Confederate dead. 
The dweUings of the city display all the beauty which umbrageous 
surroundings can give them, and its semi-tropic climate adds to the 
delight of life within its confines. 

Savannah is a very important mart of commerce, especially in 
naval stores, for which it is the greatest market and exporting pomt 
in the world. In cotton exportation it also stands high, being 
surpassed by only two American cities, while it ships great quantities 
of lumber and phosphate rock. Its imports are also important, and it 
possesses a variety of manufacturing plants, including rice, flour, 
cotton and paper mills, foundries, cotton presses, planing mills, 
packing houses, ice and furniture factories, etc. 

Brunswick, Georgia's second seaport, situated sixty miles 
south of Savannah, stands on a peninsula surrounded by salt water 
and sheltered by islands lying seaward. Live oaks and cedars, 
magnolias and palmettos, shade the streets, and many Northerners 
seek its hospitable confines in the winter season. It possesses a 
magnificent harbor, deep, spacious and well protected, and is grow- 
ing very rapidly in importance as a commercial port, its population 
increasing with great rapidity. It numbers now over 10,000. 
This town forms the ocean terminus of the East Tennessee, Virginia 
and Georgia Railroad, and is the seat of a great ^10,000,000 steel 
plant, started in 1903 and one of the largest manufacturing enter- 
prises in the South. 



5^4 Historic Cities 

Atlanta, the most thriving and prosperous city of which Georgia 
boasts, and as a business city the pride of the state, is of recent 
origin, having developed in 1847 out of the village of Marthasville, 
which dates back to 1840. It made a considerable growth before 
the period of the Civil War, but in 1864 it was caught in the high-tide 
of army movements, fierce battles being fought for its possession. 
When General Sherman left it in October, after a month's occupa- 
tion, he left chiefly behind him ruin and desolation. The whole 
business part of the city had vanished, and little was left of the once 
active place but a name on the map. No city of the South, except 
Columbia, South Carolina, suffered more from war's ravages, only 
some 300 out of its 1,000 houses being left, and these scarce worthy, 
in their desolated condition, to be called houses. Sherman took care 
to prove the truth of his own apothegm, "War is hell." But the 
men of Atlanta remained, and these were of fibre too stout and firm 
to be put down by events like this. The war over, the resurrection 
of the city at once began and it grew with a marvelous rapidity, 
until in forty years it had won a population, including that of its 
spreading suburbs, of not less than 125,000. 

Situated 294 miles northwest of Savannah, and on a site ele- 
vated 1,100 feet above sea-level, Atlanta is deficient in many of the 
facilities on which the prosperity of manufacturing cities usually 
depends. It has not, for instance, the mighty water power which is 
whirling the wheels of so many factories in other cities and trans- 
forming villages and hamlets into Fall Rivers and Manchesters. 
Then, again, it is unfortunate in the fact that it has no water high- 
way to the outer world. All that it brings in and all that it sends 
away must come and go by railroad. Hence it has not the benefit 
of the water rate in freights. It costs 33 per cent more to move 
things to and from Atlanta than it does from various other cities 
of the state. 

The absence of this water competition in the transportation of 
freight is a serious handicap as compared with cities that have it. 
But Atlanta sustains the handicap, and, notwithstanding the fact, is 
going ahead at a surprising pace. With the disadvantage removed 
there undeniably would open up a still wider field. The city cannot 
successfully compete with water rate freights in manufactures which 
involve a long haul for raw material as well as for the manufactured 



Historic Cities 5^5 

product, and must confine itself to a certain extent to the making of 
things for nearby consumption — things that are made from contigu- 
ous material. 

But for all that, the impression must not be conveyed that 
manufacturing languishes in this city. Nothing languishes in 
Atlanta, and its manufactures are distinctly robust. There is 
plenty of raw material near at hand, and the neighboring market is 
growing with the rapidity with which everything that indicates 
prosperity is growing in the South. And notwithstanding the freight 
rate disadvantages, many of Atlanta's manufactured products reach 
remote parts of the country. 

It was the Atlanta Exposition of 1881 that gave the first lively 
impetus to the city's development. The Exposition of 1895 gave 
it another send upward, and proved beyond a doubt that the place 
had in it the making of a great city. The eyes of the country were 
first fairly opened by the 1881 exposition to the manufacturing 
possibilities of the South. Factories began to spring up in its wake 
here, there, and everywhere. Naturally, Atlanta was not behind in 
the movement. In 1882, the year following the exposition, the Ex- 
position Cotton Mills Company was organized and the main exposi- 
tion building itself was utilized as a factory. This concern was 
successful from the start and now has a capital stock of ^500,000, a 
plant of 50,000 spindles and 1,500 looms, a working force of 1,000 
hands and a capacity annually of 28,000,000 yards of sheetings, 
shirtings and drills. Its product goes in considerable quantities 
to China and other countries of the Far East. 

This was but a start. The city possesses now several other 
flourishing cotton mills, with other active industries, including large 
foundries and machine shops and furniture factories, extensive stove 
works, and numerous other active manufacturing establishments, 
one of the latest being a carwheel works covering nine acres and 
of great capacity. With ten fines of railroad radiating in all 
directions and with the coal fields of Alabama and Tennessee 
furnishing steam coal defivered in the city at $1.75 per ton, Atlanta 
has great advantages as a manufacturing point. 

One of its disadvantages, as compared with some of the neigh- 
boring cities, in the matter of manufacturing facifities, is about to be 
removed in a way that inevitably will have an important and far- 
reaching effect in the development of the city. While Atlanta is 



5o6 



Historic Cities 



some sixteen miles from the Chattahoochee River, with its tremen- 
dous water power, that power converted into electric energy will 
soon be brought directly into the city over a wire which will harness 
the wheels of Atlanta's industries to the tremendous force of the 
swift-descending stream. 

A company is now engaged in building one of the largest and 
strongest dams ever made in the country across the Chattahoochee, 
at a point as near the city as possible; and near the dam a great 




A VIEW FROM THE CAPITOL, ATLANTA. GA. 
Showing a part of the business section. 

electric plant will be erected capable of producing thousands of horse 
power for lighting, heating and driving machinery and cars. 

As the capital city of Georgia, Atlanta possesses a handsome 
State House and other notable buildings, including a number of 
flourishing educational institutions. It has splendid hotels and 
hosts of charming residences, while it resembles a Northern business 
city in the number of "skyscrapers" which have gone up within 
recent years, each of them a great hive of industry. It is different 



Historic Cities 5^7 

in this respect from any other city in the South. Except that it is 
on the whole better built than any of the Northern cities of between 
100,000 and 400,000 inhabitants, it might, so far as appearances go, 
be a city of the North lifted up bodily and dropped down here. But 
so far as that is concerned the transformation of the Southern cities 
in this respect is one of the most impressive features of the great 
industrial evolution that is going on in this part of the country. The 
only difference is that here in Atlanta the transformation is complete. 
In other cities the transition stage is betrayed here and there, even 
among those which are progressing most rapidly. Some relic of 
the old days, of the old life, lingers sadly in an out-of-the-way corner, 
here and there. But in Atlanta all has gone; the old everywhere 
has made way for the new. 

Augusta, the "Lowell of the South," is one of Georgia's most 
progressive and thriving cities, whose 40,000 inhabitants will be 
more than doubled, if prediction comes true, by the time of the next 
census. Located, as it is, at the head of steam navigation on the 
Savannah River, it has advantages of cheap transportation which 
must greatly aid its development^. The greatest canal in the South 
is here, and is owned by the city, which furnishes power for manu- 
facturing plants at the nominal cost of ^5.50 per horse power, the 
cheapest in the world. The electric railway system of thirty miles 
is operated by power from this canal. 

The Savannah, upon which Augusta is located, ranks high 
among the rivers of the United States and of the world. Its valley 
is vast and rich and empties its rich product into the lap of Augusta. 
The value of its agricultural products reaches into the millions. 
Its timber and minerals are yet hardly touched. It is one of the 
most charming valleys in the world; the cHmate equable, the products 
varied. Protected by the AUeghanies from too severe winter winds, 
neither too far south nor too far north, the winters are mild and the 
summers more agreeable than those of many regions in higher lati- 
tudes. 

The Savannah River is famous for its water power. There is 
no range of mountains so beautifully set in relation to a sea as the 
AUeghanies are to the Atlantic Ocean. The distance from these 
mountains to the sea is less than three hundred miles through Georgia 
and South Carolina. Between the foot of the mountains and the 
ocean rolls a beautiful land traversed by a large number of rapidly 



5o8 Historic Cities 

running streams, furnishing more water power for manufacturing 
purposes, it is said by all high authorides, than any other similar 
area perhaps in America. The reason of this is obvious. 

The water power of the Savannah River all lies above and at 
Augusta, which is 121 miles from the sea, and is upon the dividing 
line between the level or lower country and the upper country 
stretching to the mountains. These large water powers should be 
utilized by capitalists, and no doubt will be, for better or cheaper 
power can not be found elsewhere. 

So far as cotton is concerned, Augusta has to perfection the 
three things essential to a first-class cotton market — a steady demand 
for all grades, prices that compare favorably with those of other 
markets, and, lastly, good banking and storage facilities. Add to 
these the advantages given by its exceptional equipment in railroad 
and water transportation, and it is not surprising to learn that this 
city is the largest inland cotton market in the South Atlantic states. 

In what are known as Augusta cotton mills — that is, mills 
whose offices are in this city and a large part of whose invested capi- 
tal is supplied by Augusta — there is employed close to ^6,000,000 of 
capital. There are thirteen of these mills, operating 329,740 spindles 
and 9,360 looms, and giving employment to close upon 10,000 
people. 

Handling so much cotton as this city does, the manufacture of 
that marvelous later-day source of wealth, cottonseed oil, naturally 
is one of the greatest industries here. Augusta, as a matter of fact, 
is one of the largest producers of cotton-seed oil of any of the cities 
in the South Atlantic states. Another successful enterprise of the 
city is an extensive bleachery, the first of any considerable size in the 
South, and the pioneer of an industry which must rapidly develop. 
Two hundred tons of cotton cloth are produced daily within a 
radius of two hundred miles of Augusta, and there is no just reason 
why such of it as is consumed in the South and West should have 
to go to New England to be bleached. This is a waste of opportun- 
ity not likely long to be permitted. 

Augusta enjoys a splendid climate and is a beautiful city, facts 
which are having effect in attracting mid-winter residents from the 
North. Like so many of the charming Southern cities, its streets 
were planned to be wide, elongated parks with great rows of oaks 
lining both the sidewalks and the center of the streets — superb 



Historic Cities 5^9 

colonnades of trees and long reaches of lawns on every hand. In the 
delightful suburb of Summerville — long known as Mount Salubrity — 
the pines and the great oaks representing centuries of growth, the 
broad, finely-made drives and streets, the wide, far-spreading area 
covered by fine mansions, the home-Hke, quiet security, and, last 
but not least, the attractions of the beautiful old Southern city lying 
at its feet, have found their way to the hearts of many people who at 
first came here only as transient visitors, and many have made here 
their permanent winter homes. 

The air is so dry all the winter through upon that favored spot 
that the brightest metal hardly tarnishes there. For those who find 
the fogs and cold and damp of the New York winters so trying, this 
particular part of Augusta, as it is becoming better and better known, 
is becoming more and more popular. 

Macon, another of the progressive business cities of Georgia, 
with a population in 1900 of 23,272 and rapidly increasing, stands 
among forest-clad hills, at the head of navigation on the Ocmulgee 
River, 103 miles southward from Atlanta. The story of the develop- 
ment of Macon is a repetition, of course with variations, of the story 
of the development of many interior Southern towns within the past 
two decades. Hand and hand with the extension and perfection of 
the great railroad systems went manufacturing industry, and with 
this came swift development of population and growth of merchan- 
dising, both wholesale and retail. And that is not all. The forty- 
six counties which Macon, rightfully enough, looks upon as her 
particular trade preserve, are among the richest in the state. Their 
farms alone, irrespective of the buildings and improvements, repre- 
sent a value of well on toward ^57,000,000. 

These counties include in them the wonderful Georgia peach 
belt, which sends peaches by the hundred of carloads to New York 
and the Northern market — perhaps the finest peaches, by the way, 
that are grown in all the South. Fully 2,000 carloads of peaches are 
handled by the business men of Macon every season. This peach 
country comes right up to the city's doors, as do the vast mines of 
kaolin, that beautiful white chalky clay which Trenton, New Jersey, 
and East Liverpool, Ohio, turn into such handsome pottery and 
tiling. 

The largest vein of this valuable clay, and that, too, of the finest 
quality found anywhere in the country, lies within seven miles of 



510 Historic Cities 

Macon, a vein that is fully thirty miles in width with an average 
depth of from thirty-five to seventy feet. Four companies are 
engaged in mining and shipping this clay, sending out an average of 
twenty carloads a day, worth ^loo a carload delivered on the car. 
In addition to these four concerns, another company has pur- 
chased a tract of lOO acres of kaolin lands. It is the purpose of this 
company to manufacture roof tiHng. 

Add to the kaolin and peaches and strawberries; to the pears, 
the plums and the raspberries by the ton; which are shipped away 
from here for the North^add to these an abundance of many 
varieties of fine hardwood timber, to say nothing of the famous 
Georgia pine which grows in abundance at no great distance from 
the city; and add also the cotton and fine crops of grain of all kinds 
grown in the counties of which Macon is the logical trade center, 
and you have an explanation of one cause of the city's soHd growth. 
The progress of Macon may be largely traced to its railroad 
facihties, eleven Hues radiating out from the city and aiding immense- 
ly in giving vitality to its manufacture. These consist of cotton 
textiles, cotton-seed oil, wood-working products, and other industries, 
more than forty different manufacturing concerns being here, with 
an annual output valued at ^25,000,000. In the inland raw-cotton 
trade Macon stands fourth among the cities of the United States, 
being surpassed only by Houston, Memphis and Augusta. 

Macon is of interest also as an educational center. Here is the 
Wesleyan Female College, the first in the world to confer academic 
degrees upon women. Mercer College, a Baptist institution of 
importance, is also located here, with two CathoHc colleges, St. 
Stanislaus College and Mt. DeSales Academy. 

Columbus, another of the manufacturing towns of Georgia, is 
on the Chattahoochee River, and like the towns just named has a 
large trade in cotton and extensive manufactures, consisting of 
cotton, woolen, and iron goods. Its population in 1900 was 17,614, 
The water power here is immense, the river falling 368 feet in thirty- 
six miles, of which 115 feet are practically within the city limits. 
The gross horse-power available is estimated at over 200,000, which 
is rapidly being made available, about 30,000 being so far developed. 
The city has six large cotton factories, operating 154,000 spindles, 
while it possesses two of the largest compressors and the largest 
cotton-gin works in the state. Iron manufacture is also important. 



Historic Cities 511 

Steps have been taken for an immense development of the water- 
power of the Chattahoochee River. This enterprise is of leading 
importance, since it means at a not very distant date, such a chain of 
factories for miles along the bank of the river as can hardly be matched 
anywhere in the entire country. It is possible, of course, to be over 
sanguine even about the marvelous Southern progress, but with the 
visible, tangible fact of what already has been achieved within an 
incredibly short time no prediction, however extravagant, seems 
beyond the bounds of possibihty. One thing is certain, and that is 
that since the financial depression of 1893 ended, and during the era 
of phenomenal prosperity through which the country has been pass- 
ing from that time up to the present day, the manufacturing develop- 
ment of the South, as typified in such cities as Columbus, has been 
so enormous and is established on such a bed-rock foundation, that 
however much future business depression may temporarily check 
progress here, the movement is bound to go on, however difiicult it may 
be to foretell the future shifting of the balance of manufaturing 
power. All that we can be sure of is that it is going to be vast, 
and pregnant with great results in the social and political economy 
of the country 

Columbus has two distinctions which entitle it to honor through- 
out the country. One is that this was the first city in the entire 
South to establish a graded system of schools, and the other is that 
it was here, the inspiration of a noble-hearted Columbus woman, 
that originated that beautiful custom of setting apart a day for 
decoration of the soldiers' graves which now every year makes a 
special Sabbath throughout the entire country — a Sabbath that 
follows the flowers northward every spring from Texas, where they 
first of all come in bloom. 

The peninsular State of Florida, into which manufacturing 
industries have barely made their advent, but which competes 
vigorously with California in the growth of tropical fruits, — the 
southeast and southwest being in hot rivalry in this field, — -has 
among its claims to distinction the honor of possessing the oldest 
city in the United States. Venerable St. Augustine, founded in 1565, 
nearly half a century before a British settlement was established in 
the New World, holds its place srill; not large, but quaintly pictur- 
esque and umbrageously beautiful. Founded by Spaniards from the 
West Indies, there is a tale of terror in its early history, that of the 



512 Historic Cities 

massacre of the French Huguenots who had dared to settle in what 
Spain claimed as her demesne. Later on St. Augustine repelled 
attacks from the settlers of Charleston and Savannah and remained 
in Spanish hands until the sale of Florida made it a city of the 
United States. . To-day, with its quaint Spanish lanes and balconied 
buildings, its crumbHng gateway and storied castle, it retains some of 
the flavor of its olden story, while much has been done to bring it 
into line with cides of the most modern birth. Among these are 
its costly and magnificent hotels, two of which, the Ponce de 
Leon and the Alcazar, cost ^5,000,000. These are built in Spanish 
Rennaisance style, with semi-Saracenic features. A third is the 
splendid Moresque structure known as the Hotel Cordova. There 
is also to be seen here the most elaborate Pompeian villa in the world, 
with all the anrique characterisrics of the dwellings of the ancient 
Roman city. 

St. Augustine no longer repels invasion from the north, as in its 
Spanish days, but lays itself open to annual capture by the invalided 
host which annually seeks its hospitable walls. Its mild and equable 
climate, the beauty of its situation, its umbrageous wealth of noble 
magnoHas, palms and oleanders, and the fame of its splendid 
caravanseries, render it a favorite place of winter resort, especially for 
those broken down by the austeriries of northern climates. 

While St. Augusrine is a sleepy old place, with only about 4,000 
permanent inhabitants, Jacksonville, on the St. John's River, is a 
flourishing city, whose popularion has grown from 5,377 in 1880 to 
28,429 in 1900. In it five railroads meet; it has varied manufactur- 
ing estabhshments, an acrive export trade in lumber, cotton, moss, 
oranges, etc., and possesses several colleges and a variety of state 
insriturions. Fruit-packing is one of its important industries, the 
country in its rear being prohfic in tropical products. Hither also 
come hosts of visitors from the northward, to the number of nearly 
80,000 annually, to enjoy its health-giving climate. The broad 
avenues and suburban shell roads, shaded with Hve oaks and made 
beauriful with fragrant flowers, form favorite carriage resorts. 

Florida possesses other old Spanish cities of modern as well as 
ancient interest. These include Pensacola, on the Gulf coast, a 
city of historic fame, and which boasts a noble harbor of 200 square 
miles in extent, and an acrive lumbertrade; Fernandina, an old sea 
port, with one of the best landlocked harbors on the Atlanric coast, 



Historic Cities 513 

and an export trade In lumber and naval stores; and Tampa, a very 
ancient little city, whose importance lies in its cigar factories and its 
West India trade. Still more important as a center of the cigar 
industry is Key West, on a southern island of the peninsula, which 
exports, in addition to its famous cigars, such spoils of the sea as 
turtles, sponges and salt. Like many others of the southern cities, it 
has also come into prominence as a health resort. 



23 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

GULF STATE SEAPORTS AND CENTERS 
OF INDUSTRY 

Progress in Alabama — Mobile and its commerce — Mobile's attractions — Birmingham 
and the iron industry — Other iron centers — Montgomery, the state capital — ■ 
Its history and progress — Mississippi's industries — Vicksburg and Natchez — • 
Meridian and Greenville — What Louisiana stands for — Metropolitan New 
Orleans — Its great commerce — Baton Rouge and Shreveport — The great sea- 
port of Texas — Commerce of Galveston — A frightful disaster — The grit of the 
people^San Antonio and its history — Houston and its trade — Austin, a beauti- 
ful capital city — Dallas and Fort Worth — Denison and Waco. 

IN the wonderful development of manufacturing industries in 
the states of the South during the final quarter of the nine- 
teenth century Alabama occupied a highly important place. 
This was not especially in cotton manufacture, in which this state 
held the fourth place, South CaroHna, North Carolina, and Georgia 
forging far ahead, but in iron production and manufacture, in which 
Alabama took distinctively the lead, coming into active rivalry, not 
with her sister states of the South, but with Pennsylvania herself, 
the empire of iron. In the whole industrial history of the country 
there is no spectacle more remarkable than the extraordinary pro- 
gress of the iron manufactures of Alabama within the brief period 
of two decades. Before speaking, however, of the centers of this 
rapidly-growing industry, we must turn our eyes upon Mobile, 
Alabama's one ancient and historic city. 

No city in the United States can rival Mobile in the variety of 
nationalities under which it has served since its birth in 1702. 
Successively French, English, Spanish and American, it passed a 
quiet and somewhat slumberous existence under them all, first 
waking up to its true destiny within the final years of the nineteenth 
century. The original French settlement of 1702 at the mouth of 
Dog River perished by inundation, and in 171 1 its name was given 
to a new town at the mouth of Mobile River. It was the capital of 
the colony of Louisiana until 1726. England obtained the city 

514 



Gulf State Seaports 5^5 

from France by the treaty of 1703, and in 1780, near the end of the 
Revolution, it was captured by Spain, which had joined France in 
aid of the struggling colonists. In 1813 Spain ceded it to the United 
States. The only remaining event in the history of Mobile that 
calls for mention is the fierce sea fight in Mobile Bay in August, 1864, 
between the Confederate and the Federal fleets, in which Farragut, a 
sea-hero of Southern birth, won his greatest glory. 

Located at the head of Mobile Bay, one of the noblest natural 
harbors of the world, and in the midst of an agricultural region 
unsurpassed for richness on the earth, Mobile has long possessed 
special advantages as a commercial center. Before the Civil War 
this city ranked third in export trade among American cities, cotton 
being the great staple of its active commerce. Such prosperity as it 
retained after the war was wrecked by the great panic of 1873, and 
for ten years or more afterward depression prevailed. It was not, 
in fact, until 1896 that Mobile fairly wakened up to its true mission 
and entered upon the striking career of prosperity which it now 
enjoys. 

One is scarcely prepared to think of Mobile, the city with the 
soft and slumberous name, whose very title reminds us of the 
magnolia and the traihng festoons of Spanish moss, as rousing into 
an activity that makes us think of a busthng city in the busy West; 
to find it throwing out railroads, tapping great reservoirs of wealth; 
to find it developing into a great coal and iron trade center; to hear of 
its cotton mills and lumber mills and manufactories of all kinds and 
more coming; to have the fact brought irresistibly home to us that 
here is to be a great bustling seaport and industrial center, one that 
has already developed unmistakable symptoms of being on the verge 
of the sky-scraper era of development. 

Yet that is the fact. Mobile is on the way to be a big city. All 
the conditions are here save one, the deepening of the channel to the 
lower bay and that is an event of the near future. By the time the 
Panama Canal is built Mobile will already be one of the most im- 
portant seaports of the American coast, and all ready and equipped 
to handle the enormous trade that surely will come hither when 
once that great floodgate of commerce between the Atlantic and 
Pacific is thrown open, and the Gulf of Mexico is transformed into 
another vast Mediterranean, swarming with shipping from all nooks 
and corners of the world. 



5i6 



Gulf State Seaports 



This is no dream of the people here. The dreaming days of 
Mobile are over. It is wide awake and alert and filled with that 
amazing electricity of go and progress with which the entire atmos- 
phere of the South is becoming charged. At this present moment 
the city is growing in population, growing in wealth, stretching far 
out beyond the corporate limits, and transforming acres of what five 
years ago was vacant land into beautiful streets lined with fine resi- 
dences, and, above all, covering the old central portions of the 




A VIEW OVER LOWER NEW ORLEANS, SHOWING THE CRESCENT 
IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER 

town with all that is best and most substantial in modern building 
and municipal improvement. 

Among the recent steps of progress are the building of cotton 
mills, the deepening of the water channel to admit vessels of twentv- 
three feet draught, and a rapid and substantial increase in commerce, 
which showed between 1896 and 1902 the handsome growth from 
^8,000,000 to $16,000,000, the ocean trade doubling within six years. 
Quite recently three steamship companies running regular lines of 
steamers have been added to the long and growing list of Mobile's 



Gulf State Seaports 5i7 

waterway systems of commerce, and now there are no less than eleven 
lines of steamers coming here, whereas comparatively a few years 
ago nearly all the ocean commerce of the place was done by means of 
tramp vessels, that came irregularly and at uncertain intervals as 
occasion required. 

One of the great oceanic branches of trade of the city is the 
importation of fruit from South and Central America, in which 
several steamship companies are engaged. Within a year's time some 
300 cargoes of bananas and other tropical fruits have been received 
at Mobile's wharves, and with its excellent railroad facilities it 
seems destined to do an immense business as a point of distribution 
of perishable fruits. Bananas for instance — of which from 2,570,000 
to 3,000,000 bunches are brought here annually— are shipped in 
cargoes that average about 17,000 bunches. Such a cargo, which 
will make two trains of twenty cars each, is unloaded, put aboard the 
cars and made ready to rush away to the Northern and Western 
markets within six hours after arrival. 

As a cotton port Mobile has grown rapidly in importance, now 
handling upward of 150,000 bales annually, and this is another hne 
of business which is destined to grow rapidly when the improvements 
of the harbor waterway now in progress are completed. For accessi- 
biHty to a vast cotton growing district few Southern cities are so well 
situated as Mobile. Altogether there is something like 2,200 miles 
of river navigation back in the state which finds outlet here through 
the Alabama, Tombigbee and Mobile rivers, and this vast stretch 
of waterway reaches up into the very heart of one of the finest cotton 
growing regions in the South, to say nothing of the miles upon miles 
of untouched forests — forests which contain in perfection of growth 
every variety of hardwood known to this climate. 

Soon this waterway will be opened up into the Iron and coal 
regions in the vicinity of Birmingham, and then, with the cheap 
water freight rates and the other advantages as a manufacturing and 
shipping center which Mobile possesses, the growth here is certain 
to receive a very great impetus. The opening up of the Mobile, 
Jackson and Kansas City Railroad as far as Hatdesville, Mississippi, 
one hundred miles to the northwest, has already materially added 
to the prosperity here, and when the line is pushed farther onward, 
as it soon will be, srill another great timber and mineral region will 
be opened up with Mobile for its natural outlet. Mobile's lumber 



Si8 Gulf State Seaports 

trade already amounts to some 300,000,000 superficial feet cut 
every year by the mills either here or close at hand and shipped from 
here to every part of the w^orld, though the lumber exports to foreign 
countries are falling off very considerably for the simple reason that 
the home demand is growing so enormous that there is a steadily 
diminishing quantity to send abroad. 

Mobile, v^hile active as a business city, retains much of the 
beauty vs^hich has grown up with the passing of the years. Except- 
ing where the growing business districts have encroached, many of 
the typical old Southern homes remain, dotted among the more 
modern residences, with their acres of shaded lawns, wealth of 
tropical plants and flowers and broad avenues leading from the 
streets, arched by gigantic oaks whose leaves are ever green, and 
whose great gnarled branches spread out over hundreds ot feet of 
ground. The scenic effects in and about Mobile add charm to the 
city for resident and visitor alike. It is difficult to say which is the 
most dehghtful season of the year, though perhaps in the spring 
months, when the sweet-scented magnolia is in bloom, this charming 
cHmate reaches its greatest perfection. There are always some 
varieties of flowers in blossom. 

There are many historical and beautiful drives in and about the 
city, by far the most popular being the Shell Road, which follows 
the west shore of Mobile Bay for a distance of seven miles. It was 
chartered in 1854 by a private corporation, and a vast fortune has 
been expended in giving Mobile one of the finest and most pictur- 
esque driveways in the world. 

There are sites for homes along the Shell Road which it 
would be hard to match anywhere in the country for beauty and 
as a place of residence in the winter and early spring months. The 
day is coming when that superb driveway will be lined with fine 
residences and will be famed as one of the places in America where 
it will be a distinction to live for certain months of the year. 

In 1870 the county of Jefferson, in Central Alabama, was with- 
out a city, without a railroad, with nothing but plantations of cotton 
and corn and a few thousands of rural inhabitants. To-day it has a 
population of 162,000, of which probably 12,000 belong to the county 
at large and the remainder to an Arabian Night's city, which has 
sprung up as if by magic and set the sleepy old county in a breezy 
swim. This city is named Birmingham, after the great English 



Gulf State Seaports 5^9 

manufacturing city of that title. Founded in 1871, it has gone ahead 
by leaps and bounds, and though the 1900 census credits it with only 
38,415 people, this refers merely to those within the corporate limits, 
outside of which thousands more spread on every hand, all outgrowths 
of Birmingham. If it be asked to what this astonishing develop- 
ment is due, we need but answer, to coal and iron. Birmingham 
is an inevitable development of the vast veins of these two invaluable 
minerals of which Alabama justly boasts. To show the wealth of 
these, and what is being done with them, it will suffice to quote 
from a speech of L. W. Johns, a careful statistician, in December, 
1900. He said: 

"You will please remember that you are now in what is called 
the Birmingham district, surrounded by coal, iron ore and limestone 
under the ground and cotton and corn above the ground. You are 
about four miles away from the coal and one and one-half miles 
from the iron ore. We have in Alabama a larger area of coal than 
Great Britain, larger than Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, Mary- 
land, Georgia or British America. Great Britain has 6,195 square 
miles of coal fields, while Alabama has 8,350. The Warrior coal 
field alone has 780 square miles, fifty seams, twenty-five workable. 
Cahaba coal field has 400 square miles, twenty seams, five workable. 
Coosa coal field has 150 square miles. These three coal fields con- 
tain in round numbers 110,000,000,000 tons of coal, which will 
supply 150 furnaces, making 150 tons a day for 1,000 years. 

"In i875there was not a coke oven in this state; to-day we have 
nearly 6,000 ovens, making us nearly 9,000 tons a day of good coke. 
We have in this Birmingham district twenty-seven blast furnaces, 
twenty-six now in blast, making an average of 3,600 tons a day of 
pig iron. We are sending ore to Tennessee, sending pig iron to 
Boston, to New Hampshire, to Maine and to Mexico. Show me 
any other country except this where cotton and corn grow on top of 
coal and iron ore. I can show you a sight on Red Mountain that no 
eye hath seen nor ear hath heard of. You can there stand on twen- 
ty-four feet of iron ore and in sight of you are the great Warrior coal 
fields on one side and the Cahaba and Coosa on the other, with 
limestone enough lying in the valleys to flux the ores of the world, and 
above all you can see cotton and corn growing over the ore, coal and 
limestone. 

"Our great Red Mountain iron ore vein runs parallel with the 



520 Gulf State Seaports 

Alabama Great Southern Railroad for 164 miles — the vein averaging 
in thickness over twenty feet by two miles wide, with an average 
analysis of over 50 per cent of metallic iron. We have enough ore 
in this district to supply all the furnaces of America for 1,000 years. 
We also have great steel mills here making boiler plates, rods and 
rails. We will have in this district the largest car factory in America. 
In fact we want for nothing. If you will build a Chinese wall around 
this district we will want for nothing save tea and coffee. " 

These words suffice to tell what has made Birmingham what 
it is. It represents the form of that marvelous development of 
manufacturing industry which has seized upon the South and is 
carrying it forward into competition with the business section of the 
North. We need say nothing further about Birmingham except 
to specify some of its industries. In addition to its furnaces and 
forges, its rolling mills and steel plants, it possesses the industries 
below enumerated. 

There is here a wire, rod and nail mill, employing 1,500 men, 
consuming from 150 to 300 tons of steel daily and turning out 3,000 
kegs of nails every twenty-four hours; there is a steel-car plant that 
employs 1,000 men and represents a capitalization of ;^6oo,ooo; 
there is a cast-iron pipe plant making pipe from 3 inches to 13 inches 
in diameter, employing 600 men and turning out 300 tons of pipe a 
day; there are three other iron pipe companies employing nearly 
1,000 men among them, all told; there are stove foundries, plough 
and agricultural works, boiler-making concerns, CorHss engine works, 
bolt and nut works, two cotton factories, two cotton-seed oil mills, 
chemical works, knitting mill, overall and clothing factory, two 
wagon factories and so on through the gamut of nearly everything 
that can be imagined, and yet with something new and something big 
either just starting up or just looming in sight on the horizon. 

There is magnetism in Birmingham's big iron mountain right 
within the city gates. It is drawing wealth and wealth producers 
hither from far and near. A great metropoHs of the great South is to 
exist here before many years have passed. 

Birmingham does not exhaust the iron industries of the state 
The enterprise of Alabama in this direction has been extraordinary 
and there are several young cities racing fast on the track of the older 
one. There is Anniston, an outgrowth of the mining industry and 
with flourishing car wheel and axle works, great car-building works. 



Gulf State Seaports 



521 



pipe mills and other active industries. There is Sheffield, founded 
in 1884 and named after another great Enghsh home of industry. 
Here are five great blast furnaces yielding iron of the finest quahty, 
to the extent of 700 tons of pig iron daily. There is Bessemer, a 
fourth of these iron-working settlements, founded in 1887, and to- 
day possessing seven blast furnaces, large rolHng mills, pipe works, 
and other industries. Elsewhere in Alabama the iron working 
industry is making itself apparent, and it is rapidly coming into 





DEXTER AVEiNUE, MOi\ TGUMERV, ALABAMA 

In the distance may be seen the Capitol Building. Dexter Avenue is modeled 
after Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington. 

competition in the markets of the country and the world with the 
famous centers of iron manufacture in the North. Pennsylvania 
must look well to its laurels, for Alabama is in the field and in the 
race, and can justly cast aside its olden title of "Here we rest" for 
the modern one of "Here we strive." 

Leaving the centers of commerce and manufacture, we come to 
a typical Southern city of the past-time type, a place of business 



522 Gulf State Seaports 

instead of manufacture, of inland trade instead of ocean commerce. 
This city is Montgomery, Alabama's beautiful capital, and memor- 
able as the place where the Southern Confederacy came formally 
into being, gave itself a name, a constitution, and a government, and 
inaugurated Jefferson Davis as its first and only President. The 
spot on v^hich he stood v^hen he took the oath of office is not forgot- 
ten, but is marked by a brass star on the capitol portico as one of the 
distinctive spots m the history of the South. 

From Montgomery v^as sent the order to fire that shot on Fort 
Sumter which was the tocsin peal of one of the most desperate 
struggles in the world's history. On the day of this momentous 
event Montgomery was still a typical Southern city, a lazy, drowsy 
place, where men took life easily and leisurely and indolent darkies 
dozed in the sun in summer weather; just a quiet, wholesome, 
slowly incubating place, not yet caught in the whirl of the modern 
world. But then, as always, it was a delightful place of residence; 
resting on undulating hills, with wide vistas of superb agricultural 
country all about, pure air, delightful climate, and a social fabric 
woven all through and through with the golden threads of refinement 
and kindliness and generous hospitality. As Montogmery was 
when the dreadful storm of civil war broke upon the country, so it 
had been for many years, and so, as regards its preservation of what 
was best and most lovable in the characteristics of the old ante- 
bellum days, it is to-day. 

There is the life and the stir and the spirit of buoyant hopeful- 
ness in the city that are typical of the South of to-day but with them 
there is the mellowing influence of times gone by, still lingering 
like a perfume about the old city and giving it a charm of its own. 

Montgomery is growing — ^just as Savannah and Augusta and 
Knoxville and others of the older towns of the South are growing — 
along soHd and conservative lines. It was as a cotton market and as 
a distributing point for plantation suppHes and stores of all sorts 
that the foundations of its wealth were laid far back in the past. It 
is as a cotton market and as a distributing point on a far larger scale 
than ever before that its prosperity of to-day is based. Indeed, 
Montgomery's jobbing trade in its quiet, conservative way is con- 
siderably larger than that of bustling Birmingham itself. Without 
bluster and fuss or blowing of trumpets, Montgomery can justly 
claim a business amounting to ^45,000,000 a year, and of this fully 










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Gulf State Seaports 523 

^ia,000,000 is in the wholesale grocery business alone. Railroads 
reach here from all parts of the country, and by their inspiring aid 
they have made this inland city one of the largest jobbing centers in 
all the South. 

Built on the navigable Alabama River, 343 miles by water from 
the Gulf and 180 miles by rail above Mobile, and situated on the 
edge of the famous black belt — that marvelous stretch of rich dark 
soil, fifty miles wide, which runs across the State of Alabama from 
east to west and reaches far over into Mississippi — Montgomery is in 
the heart of one of the finest cotton-growing regions in the entire 
country, while corn and every variety of vegetable grow there with 
marvelous results. 

Indeed, like so many other rich agricultural regions of the South 
which the trunk fine railroads have reached, the vicinity of Mont- 
gomery is fast becoming one of the great trucking centers whence 
vegetables of all varieties are sent in vast quantities to the Northern 
markets, while there are from 150,000 to 175,000 bales of cotton 
turned out in its presses every year, placing it among the largest 
inland cotton cities of the South. 

As a business center Montgomery has other advantages in 
addition to the lines of railroad which reach it from all parts of the 
land. It is famous in the South for its many miles of good road, 
macadamized or other hard-bedded avenues of traffic, stretching in 
all directions into the country, and traversed daily by long lines of 
wagons bringing cotton and other farm products into the city. 
And the highroads and railroads are not the only means of communi- 
cation with the world abroad, since it is an important river town as 
well as a railroad center. The Alabama River is navigable all the 
year round between Montgomery and Mobile. Three lines of 
steamers ply regularly between the two cities and the two or three 
days' trip in the early spring of the year from the heart of the state 
down to the waters of the Gulf is counted one of the pleasantest 
excursions that can be made anywhere in this part of the South. 

But the great advantage, of course, is in the value of the river 
to Montgomery as a shipping point. Freight can be loaded on 
steamers or barges in Montgomery and floated down the Alabama 
at almost a nominal rate to Mobile and there loaded directly on 
seagoing craft for foreign ports, with through bills of lading from 
the Montgomery wharf direct to Liverpool or London, 



524 



Gulf State Seaports 



Aside from its beauty — and it is one of the most beautiful cities 
in the South — -Montgomery's advantage as a place of residence lies 
in its healthfulness, and its healthfulness is due to its elevation, its 
pure air, its fine sewers and pavements, and, above all, to the almost 
chemically pure water which flows into its hydrants from the series 
of artesian wells from which the city is supplied. Add to these 
advantages those of an admirable climate that is free from extremes 
in either winter or summer, excellent schools and churches, and 




RESIDENCE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS, BEAUVOIR, MISSISSIPPI 

people who are refined and kindly to a degree, and it is not difficult 
to understand why it is that those who come here as strangers to live 
grow so fond of the place, to say nothing of those for whom the city 
has the traditions of a home dating back through many generations. 
Mississippi, long the premium cotton-growing State, is still one 
of those members of the Union in which agrcultural surpass muni- 
cipal interests, its cities being comparatively small in size, though 
several of them have thriving industries and are growing in 



Gulf State Seaports 525 

population and importance. It is the richness of the soil that 
gives it this rural disposition, and also the fact that New Orleans, 
the great Southern outlet of the Mississippi River, serves admirably 
for the business interests of the state. On the great river are seated 
the tv^o leading business tow^ns, Vicksburg and Natchez, and adjoin- 
ing It lies that wonderfully rich stretch of soil, the Yazoo Delta, 
6,250 square miles in area, and constituting one of the most fertile 
districts in the vast valley of the Mississippi. And the soil of the 
state generally is of remarkable fertihty, except in the region of 
grey and white clays in the northeast and the section covered by the 
forests of long-leaf pine. 

The chief interest surrounding Vicksburg lies in its history. 
Standing on the river bluff, about midway between Memphis and 
New Orleans, it was a strong strategic point in the Confederate 
system of defence of the Mississippi, and the contest for its possession 
was one of the most striking events of the Civil War. Prior to the 
war it was a river port of some importance, having in i860 a popu- 
lation of 4,951. As early as Januar}% 1861, immediately after passing 
an ordinance of secession, the authorities of Mississippi planted can- 
non at Vicksburg to command the river. It was looked upon as the 
key to the control of the great waterway, and as time went on it 
bristled with fortifications and cannon. The story of its long seige 
by Grant, the obstinate defense by Pemberton and his gallant army, 
and their surrender on July 4, 1863, — to starvation rather than to 
Grant, — are matters of history on which we need not dilate. The 
war over, Vicksburg grew and spread. Situated in the midst of the 
most fertile cotton region of the country, it became one of the 
principal inland shipping ports for that staple. In addition to its 
commerce it has some manufacturing industries, including iron works, 
railroad cars, lumber and cotton-seed oil. Except when the river is 
high, steamboats have to land two miles below, whence a railroad 
runs to the city. For miles the Walnut Hills extend along the river, 
five hundred feet high and affording very picturesque scenery. 

The city itself has many elements of attraction. Climbing 
by almost perpendicular streets up the face of the bluff from the 
range of elevators and warehouses at the river side, we reach the 
plateau upon which the main city stands. Here it runs back over 
a fine series of terraces, with many handsome residences in the upper 
streets, and the Court-House rising from their highest elevation. 



526 Gulf State Seaports 

Below one sees the river curling in a great loop, sweeping past in a 
broad current, while in the distance may be seen the famous "Cut- 
off" by which Grant vainly sought to divert the current of the Missis- 
sippi and convert Vicksburg into an inland town. 

Not far to the south of Vicksburg stands Natchez, the second 
river port of the state, the most beautiful of Mississippi towns and 
with few rivals for loveliness in the South. It is a city with an 
interesting ancient history. Fort Rosalie was built here in i'ji6,hy 
Bienville, the founder of New Orleans. It was destroyed by the 
Natchez Indians and rebuUt in 1729, and was a French trading post 
until 1763, when the British took possession and named it Fort Pan- 
mure. It was one of the few places in the Gulf States that had a 
Revolutionary history. It was attacked by an American force in 
1778, which was repulsed, and old Fort Panmure rebuilt by the 
Tory inhabitants. In 1779 a force of Spanish infantry and Ameri- 
can volunteers captured it, and it was held by the Spaniards for 
three years, when an American force bombarded and took it. The 
Spaniards subsequently drove them out and held Natchez till 1798, 
when it was given up to the United States. 

The Natchez of to-day is a charming and very promising city, 
with its pubHc buildings and handsome dweUings on the bluffs, or 
Natchez-on-the-Hill, its wharves and shipping facilities below, at 
Natchez-under-the-Hill. The latter in the old days of the city 
bore anything but a salubrious reputation, being accounted one of 
the wickedest places in the United States. The first cotton-seed 
oil mill In the United States was built at Natchez in 1834. To-day 
it possesses cotton mills and other manufactures and has a busy 
river trade. 

He who, from a river steamboat, sees only Natchez-under-the- 
Hill, gets a very false impression of this city. He must scale the 
cliffs to the beautifully shaded town on the summit of the bluffs, to 
get a just idea of the charm of the place. Here he will find hosts 
of pretty dweUings, an impressive cathedral, a handsome Masonic 
temple, and delightful walks under the shade of the China-tree and 
the water-oak, the cedar and the laurimunda, so closely grouped 
that the glare of the sunbeams rarely reaches the pavement below. 
Here are luxurious gardens and charming lawns, and a wealth of 
flowery bloom that one would need to journey far elsewhere to see. 
The city is quiet, serenely so, but it is certainly very attractive. 



Gulf State Seaports 527 

The cotton manufacture of Mississippi is chiefly centered at 
Meridian and Greenville^ the former having the largest mill, the 
latter the greater number of mills. Meridian has various other 
manufactures and is notable for its enterprise and rapid growth, its 
population— 14,000 in 1900 — having doubled since that date. 

Louisiana, like Mississippi, is very largely an agricultural state, 
remarkable for the fertihty of its alluvial region, and dividing its 
farming interests between sugar, cotton, rice and corn. More than 
half the state is covered with vast forests of the valuable yellow 
pine, which are estimated to contain nearly 50,000,000,000 feet of 
this desirable timber. There are other forests of oak, of cypress, 
and of hve-oak. The alluvial regions, forming the wide bottom 
land along the Mississippi and the other large rivers, cover about 
one-fourth the state, and fully an eighth of its surface is embraced in 
the great marsh region adjoining the Gulf, with extensive and fertile 
prairies rising like islands above the level of the marsh. 

A state like this seems one more calculated for agricultural 
than civic interests, but through its eastern section flows the mighty 
Mississippi, one of the few supreme rivers of the world, and an 
artery of trade extending, with its numerous great affluents, through 
many thousands of miles of the central region of the continent. It 
has within and along Louisiana alone 585 miles of navigable waters, 
and the state possesses in all 3,782 miles of navigable streams, 
having a greater length of inland navigation than any other state 
of the Union. Of these streams, those of greatest flow make the 
Mississippi their channel of connection with the sea. So mighty 
a river as this could not otherwise than attract population and busi- 
ness interests to its banks, and on its lower waters has grown up a 
great city, the metropolis of Louisiana as of a large district beyond, 
and far the greatest and busiest city in the states of the Gulf 

New Orleans, which in 1900 passed the quarter million mark 
in population, reaching a total of 287,104 inhabitants, is a city of 
triple nationality, French, Spanish, and American, and displays 
to-day marked traces of all these national strains. A vigorous eff"ort 
was made in 18 14 to add a British nationality to the three named, 
but it was nipped in the bud by Jackson and his Tennessee rifle- 
men. The site of this great city — on the east bank of the Mississippi 
107 miles from its mouth — was first visited in 1699 by the Frenchmen 
Bienville, who was made governor of the French colony of Louisiana 



528 



Gulf State Seaports 



in 1706, and founded this city in 1718, making it the capital of the 
colony in 1726. It was ceded to Spain in 1763, but its people had 
no fancy to pose as Spaniards, and when a governor from Spain ar- 
rived they drove him out, formed a government of their own, and 
held the place till 1769, when Spain finally gained control. France 
took it back in 1802, and quickly transferred it to the United States, 

as a part of the great 
Louisiana purchase. 
Other stirring events in 
its history are the gallant 
defense made by Jackson 
in 18 14-15, the occupa- 
tion by the Federals in 
1862, and the serious 
pohtical troubles of 1874 
and 1877. Since the lat- 
ter date New Orleans has 
occupied itself in growing 
and in developing its 
trade and business. The 
United States has no 
more interesting seat of 
population than this Gulf 
State metropolis. France 
and Spain have left on 
it indelible marks of their 
habitation, overlaid by 
our bustling American- 
ism, yet still abundantly 
OLD CITY HALL, NEW ORLEANS discernible. There are 

It was to this building that the officers of Farragut's p^Q g r O U p S of people 
fleet came to demand the surrender of the city. here thoSC who are rush- 

ing furiously onward on the car of progress and those who are 
resignedly riding and trying to get glimpses of bygone days 
between jolts. There is room for a little sympathy with those 
thus relentlessly borne onward. There was much in the old 
New Orleans, the old light-hearted, pleasure-loving, somewhat 
disheveled, and woefully dirty New Orleans of yore, to 
take deep root in the affections of those whose memories go back 




Gulf State Seaports 529 

into the not remote past; much in the old-time generous hospitality, 
the pleasant, deliberate Hfe and social relations, which took time for 
all the Httle amenities and courtesies of Hving; there was much in 
that which was prettier than the abrupt, curt, elbowing, shoving 
ways of hustle. So there is a kindly tolerance for those who mildly 
lament the days that are gone — as long as their lamentations do 
not interfere with business. 

They know all this, these old Creoles, they know it and are glad 
of it and take a large pride in it, and yet as they are borne along 
on the crest of the rising tide they cannot help turning their eyes a 
little sadly backward to the old landmarks so swiftly melting away 
in the mists of the past — mists of the past or the dun smoke of 
factory chimneys, whichever you choose. 

Business here is absorbing everything, as it is everywhere in the 
South. Soon it will overrun and change much, if not all, in the 
physical aspect, as well as the social Hfe, of the Crescent City, which 
in former times distinguished the place from all other American 
communities. The rising tide of business that is even now roaring 
through Canal street, is beating against the boundaries of that old 
picturesque French quarter, with its overhanging balconies, its 
houses filled witn the mysteries and tragedies and pretty love stories 
of the past. Business is already battering at the gates of the old 
citadel of Creoledom. 

Canal street is still the dike, the levee between the old French 
city and the tumultuous seat of commerce beyond. But the spray 
of the dashing tide is already beginning to fall over within the sacred 
precincts. There are rumors of real estate speculations and build- 
ing invasions. Those who would see anything of the old New 
Orleans of history and romance would do well not to delay their 
visit there by many years. 

It is really not more than a decade or two of years since New 
Orleans began to feel the impulse of the new Hfe which is working 
such mighty changes throughout all the Southern states. Yet the 
transformation already wrought here is surprising. To say nothing 
of the old Creole features, those who delay many years their visit 
will not even find New Orleans a Southern city when they get there. 
Atlanta years ago lost those characteristics commonly associated 
in the mind with cities of the Southern States. New Orleans is 
shedding the same characteristics at the present moment as rapidly 

34 



53^ Gulf State Seaports 

as ever did Atlanta in the most active of her years of transition. 
Atlanta in appearance, in her commercial and industrial atmosphere, 
is already a Western city. New Orleans is fast becoming one. 

Cotton is a great feature of the prosperity of this growing city, 
which, excepting Liverpool, is the largest cotton mart in the world. 
Yearly more than 2,000,000 bales of the white treasure of the South 
is shipped outward from its wharves. It is also claimed to be the 
greatest sugar and rice market in the world, and imports annually 
more than 100,000,000 pounds of coffee, 30,000,000 pounds of 
Texan and Mexican wool, 12,000,000 pounds of hides, and vast 
quantities of tropical fruits. Its shipping trade also includes lumber, 
iron and other classes of merchandise. With six trunk lines of 
railway, fifteen miles of river front, — including six miles of wharves,- 
several large steamship companies, and with a gross shipping 
capacity of over 4,000,000 tons, it stands high among American 
commercial cities, being surpassed only by New York among United 
States ports. How it will rank after the Panama Canal is completed 
must be left for the future to tell. 

Aside from its business aspect. New Orleans has abundance to 
recommend it. It abounds in rich bits of color and quaint sugges- 
tions of a drowsy past. It possesses the many-colored streets of 
the old Creole quarters, the vivid gardens of the French, the quaint 
gables and peaks and dormers of the Rue Royale, the bright flower 
beds of Jackson Square, the venerable Spanish fort on Lake Pon- 
chartrain, the noble old Cathedral St. Louis, the fine driveway on the 
shell road, the pleasant parks with their statues and monuments, and 
annually its picturesque festival of Mardi Gras, with its superb 
revelry. This festival, in which Mobile claims to be the pioneer, 
is yearly observed with much glitter and entertainment in both cities. 

New Orleans is largely exhaustive as an example of civic life 
in Louisiana. On the river, 129 miles above it, stands Baton Rougw, 
the state capital, a city of some 11,000 inhabitants, with many 
quaint old houses and an air of languid restfulness. It possesses a 
trade of some dimensions with the adjoining parishes, and is 
adorned with a fine State-house. Here are also several state 
institutions for charitable and other purposes. 

The Red River has its thriving city in Shreveport, with its 
16,000 citizens, its great shipments of cotton, wool, hides and tallow, 
and its planing and saw mills, foundries and machine shops, cotton- 



Gulf State Seaports 



531 



seed oil, carriage and other factories. Much of its prosperity comes 
from the unsurpassed ferdlity of the alluvial secrion in which it stands. 
Greatest in area and one of the first in resources among our 
States, imperial Texas has grown with great rapidity since its admis- 
sion to the United States in 1845 ^^^ ^^^ to-day point to some dozen 
of cities ranging from 10,000 to over 50,000 population. Its great 
cattle ranges, its immense development of cotton culture, its mineral 
vv^ealth, and especially the vast deposits of petroleum found beneath 
its surface, have 
brought to it a 
rapid influx of 
immigrants and 
capital, and have 
raised Texas to 
the proud posi- 
tion of the richest 
state of the South. 
Among its swiftly 
developing cities 
is one seaport 
which can boast 
a harbor of rare 
excellence, and a 
growing com- 
merce srill in its 
infancy, for the 
completion of the 
Isthmian ship- 

canal will no STATE HOUSE, BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA 

doubt bring it an immense development. To-day Galveston ranks 
fourth in the United States in extent of foreign exports, while 
it is a close competitor with New Orleans for the honor of 
being the greatest cotton exporter in the land. Having in its 
rear the vast cotton district of Texas and Oklahoma, which now 
yield nearly one-third of all our cotton, its progress in this particular 
promises to go rapidly on. Its exports of cotton-seed products are 
also of growing importance, having reached an annual value of over 
^5,000,000, and the total value of its exports has passed the ^ioo,ooo,« 
000 mark. Twenty-eight steamship lines ply between Galveston 




532 Gulf State Seaports 

and foreign and coastwise ports, railroads connect it with every part 
of the north, and a great future for this well-seated Gulf seaport is 
assured. 

This fine commercial city of the Lone-Star state stands among 
far-extending groves of orange and oleander, on a low island, with a 
noble beach of over thirty miles in length. The harbor of the 
"Oleander City," as it is commonly called, is one of the most 
impressively beautiful in the world. Stretching for miles in a great 
semi-circle, the ship channel sweeps by the greatest system of docks 
in the South, and out to sea through the most magnificent system 
of jetties in the world. Here may be seen elevators towering hgh 
above the tallest masts in the harbor, where gran and coal are 
handled by the mil ons of bushels and hundreds of thousands of 
tons; the endless warehouses where the crops of many states might 
be stored; also every adjunct of a modern, busy, deep water-port, 
from a gas buoy to a big ship on a marine railway. 

Galveston naturally commands the commerce of Texas, but in 
addition it is the gateway to the sea for that wide expanse of trans- 
Mssissippi country that is termed the supply house of the world. 
Kansas is the central state of the United States, and Galveston is the 
nearest port to that center. 

Galveston Island in its earlier days was known as a resort of 
p'rates, with the notorious Lafitte for their chief. After their bands 
had been dispersed, an energetic population of honest settlers 
gathered here, and began the work of develop'ng the chief 
port of the southwest. Settled in 1847, the town rapidly grew. In 
1850 it had 4,177 population. In 1900 its inhab tants numbered 
37,789. Then came upon it one of the most frightful disasters any 
American city has ever known. The low-lying island, from a m.le 
to four miles in width, and clasped between the waters of the outer 
Gulf and the inner bay, lifted its surface only to an average of five 
feet above the sea level. More than once the ocean waters had 
invaded the city streets. The final catastrophe came on the 8th of 
September, 1900. On that day came a terrific hurricane which raised 
the waters of the Gulf into foaming waves and hurled them in 
irresistible fury upon the island shores, until the whole c ty was con- 
verted into a b llowing lake with surging waves rushing through its 
streets to a depth of four feet in its highest parts and fifteen feet m its 
lower levels. Never had city been exposed to a more frightful inva- 



Gulf State Seaports 533 

sion. Between noon and midnight of that fatal day more than five 
thousand souls had gone to their death, and a full third of the city's 
area was swept clean of inhabitants, a scene of frightful wreckage 
alone remaining. Then, having completed its work, the liquid 
monster withdrew, and Sunday morning dawned smiling, revealing 
the tiger-like Gulf licking its lips on the desolated beach, as if proud 
of its work. 

Such is, in brief, the story of that day of wreck and ruin, death 
and desolation. We cannot go into its details, and it must suffice 
to say that the survivors, in their first dismay, were almost ready to 
abandon the island and build a new city on the adjoiring main. Al- 
most, but not quite. They were Americans, and that means much. 
Courage, resolution, the bull-dog tenacity of the true American, soon 
came back, and they sternly resolved to rebuild the city on its old 
ground and to chain the sea waters so that they could never again 
claim the island as their own. The rebuilding of the ruined city 
began with hardly a day's delay, and it was resolved by an almost 
unanimous vote to erect a huge sea-wall that the ocean could not 
overtop, three miles in length and seventeen feet in height above 
low-water mark. It was also resolved to fill in the wave-swept 
section of the city so as to bring it all up to the level of safety. All 
this has been done, but the alert business men of Galveston did not 
fold their arms to await its completion. Within three weeks after 
the storm, business had been resumed. They went to work with a 
will, doing business with the old alertness and activity, so that the 
years which immediately followed the disaster showed a greater 
volume than was ever known before. Such is the record of Ameri- 
can grit and Southern enterprise. 

One of the largest cities of the Lone-Star state, most progres- 
sive in inland development, and most famous in historic interest, 
is San Antonio, the city of the Alamo, the Mecca of Texan history. 
San Antonio is the outgrowth of an old Spanish city, whose origin 
dates back to 1718. It became a city, with its present name, in 
1738, and though it vegetated under Spanish dominion, it has grown 
in American hands till it now claims over 93,000 people. This city, 
the cradle of Texan liberty, built on two beautiful streams, the San 
Antonio and San Pedro Rivers, is a place of solid and ponderous 
architecture, Spanish in character in its narrow streets with their 
quaint dwellings, its Cathedral and other ancient edifices. The 



534 Gulf State Seaports 

acknowledged beauty of the city is largely due to its broad plazas, 
over-shaded by fine old trees and bordered by busy shops, and its 
numerous parks. Its historic treasure is the venerable Alamo, now 
the property of the State. Here it was that in 1836 Travis, Crockett, 
Bowie, and their followers fought like heroes against ten times their 
number and died rather than surrender. Their heroism was not 
surpassed by that of the Spartans of old, and the place where they 
died has been well called the "Thermopylae of Texas." 

San Antonio, the only town in the United States with a thorough- 
ly Spanish aspect, is to-day a thriving center of inland commerce. 
It lies in the midst of a beautiful and fertile region, and is the 
distributing point chosen by merchants of the rich republic of 
Mexico in their trade with the United States, its situation rendering 
it specially inviting to this traffic. It is also very favorably situated 
for handling the abundant farm and fruit products of Texas. 

North of the city and on the coast are orchards of peaches, 
plums, apricots, pears, apples, and also vineyards of the finest 
European varieties of grapes; here also barley, rye and oats grow 
well; everywhere corn and cotton are grown. South of the city, 
especially near the coast, all kinds of vegetables, melons and grapes 
are extensively grown, and are on the market three to six weeks ear- 
lier, while about one-third of the distance nearer the Eastern 
markets, than the products of California. 

The prosperity of San Antonio rests at present principally upon 
the live stock industry of the state. The city has been and is the 
greatest live stock center of the greatest live stock producing state 
of the Union. Texas and cattle are almost synonymous words, 
the one is inseparably linked with the other. And the fame of San 
Antonio is intimately blended with both. In the earlier days, when 
the ranchman was the prince of the prairies and San Antonio was the 
only city of any importance in all Western and Southwestern Texas, 
it became the natural rendezvous of the cattlemen, and hither 
the product of the ranches finds its way to-day, this city being the 
leading market in the state for cattle, horses, mules and swine. 
It has besides various manufacturing industries and is in every 
respect an active and thriving city. 

On the narrow but navigable BuflFalo Bayou, about fifty miles 
from Galveston, lies the bustling commercial city of Houston, named 
from the father of the Texan Republic, whose capital it once was. 



Gulf State Seaports ^35 

Here converge a dozen railroads with others fast coming. These 
spread out to all points of the compass, while between Houston and 
Galveston steamboats and cotton barges pass continually, traversing 
the bayou between almost endless groves of magnolias. In addition 
to its active commerce, Houston possesses thriving manufactures, 
including extensive machine shops, cotton-seed oil mills, and car- 
works. Into its warehouses pour vast quantities of cotton, great 
supplies of pine lumber, corn in profusion, and sugar gathered from 
fields 10,000,000 acres in area. As a distributing center for these 
products it has built up an immense business, which has drawn 
to its streets a population over 80,000 in number. As a city it is 
beautiful and salubrious. There may be found all the charm of the 
tropics without their enervating heat. While wheat, corn and cotton 
grow abundantly about it in summer, mid-winter is rendered sum- 
merlike here by a profusion of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. 

Centrally in Texas lies Austin, the state capital, seated on the 
Colorado River in a broad valley with the blue Colorado mountains 
visible in the distance. Here are the State Capitol and the State 
University, with other important institutions crowning the neighbor- 
ing hills. The city has a cheerful appearance, with its building 
material of light colored brick and cream-colored limestone, which 
give it a peculiarly attractive tone. The Capitol, a structure of fine 
Texas marble, stands prominently on an eminence. The state 
has no more picturesque city, and it is rapidly growing in wealth 
and population, having advanced from 4,000 in 1870 to 22,000 in 
1900, and since then fast increasing. 

In the northeastern section of the state, on the tortuous Trinity 
River, stands Dallas, the commercial capitol of Northern Texas, 
and one of very rapid growth, with a population in 1905 of 42,- 
638, it now claims to have reached the 100,000 mark. Surround- 
ing it is a broad area of rich, undulating prairies, producing cotton, 
corn and wheat in profusion, and making Dallas its center of distri- 
bution. This city is claimed as the second largest market for agri- 
cultural Implements in the Union, has large grain elevators and 
flour mills, and a trade summing up many millions of dollars 
annually. Its manufacturing interests are large and thriving, it 
possessing numerous factories, foundries, woolen mills, etc. Near 
by, on an oak-crowned blufi^ 200 feet above the city, is the pleas- 
ant and charming suburb of Oak Cliff', an umbrageous residence 
town of great attractiveness. 



53^ Gulf State Seaports 

Thirty-three miles west of Dallas, on the Trinity River, close to 
the northern edge of the cotton-belt and near the center of the corn- 
belt, lies the city of Fort Worth, a place of 26,688 population in 1900 
and possessing a large trade in cotton and corn. Here are the head- 
quarters of the stockmen of the Pan Handle region, and as late as 
1879 this city was the terminus of the largest stage route in the world, 
reaching 1,600 miles westward to Yuma, Arizona. Here are stock 
yards, grain elevators, flour mills, extensive railroad repair shops, 
and various other thriving industries. 

Of the other important cities of Texas we shall mention only 
Denison, a city founded in 1872 and the chief trading point for much 
of the Indian Territory; and Waco, on the Brazos River, a solidly 
built and prosperous center of manufactures, and the seat of an 
important educational institution, the flourishing Baylor University. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

FAMOUS CITIES OF THE SOUTH CEN- 
TRAL STATES 

The South Central states — Origin of St. Louis — Its business prosperity — The great 
Exposition — Kansas City and St. Joseph — Little Rock and other cities of Arkan- 
sas — The founding of Louisville — The city's development — Lexington and the 
Blue Grass regions — Covington and Newport — The characteristics of Tennessee — ■ 
The situation of Memphis — Its history and prosperity — Cotton and hardwood — - 
Chattanooga and its history — Growth of its iron works — Its other industries — ■ 
Attractions of Chattanooga — Knoxville and its situation — Its history and indus- 
tries — The record of Nashville — Its institutions. 

OF the states of the South only four lie wholly inland, all the 
others having a long coast line on the Atlantic or the Gulf. 
These states occupy the central region of the great Missis- 
sippi Valley, two of them lying on each side of the mighty "Father of 
Waters," while they boast among their streams its two grandest 
affluents, the Missouri and the Ohio. Rich in mining resources, 
rich in agricultural wealth, rich in the intelligence and enterprise of 
their populations, these states occupy a prominent place in the great 
empire of the Stars and Stripes. They are dotted over with thriving 
cities, many of them of great importance, one of them the metropolis 
of the South and the fourth in size of all the cities of the land, noble 
St. Louis, the imperial city of the middle West. It is an interesting 
fact that the South possesses alike in its northeastern and its north- 
western section a great city that has passed the half-million mark, 
Baltimore and St. Louis, the latter, with its 1900 record of 575,238 
population, the greater of the two. It is with the splendid metro- 
politan city of the Louisiana Purchase, the city of the Great Fair 
commemora^mg this Purchase, with which we are here concerned. 
When France discovered and explored the upper Mississippi, 
^nd claimed as her own the vast and virgin territory through which 

537 



53^ Famous Cities 

it flowed, it took care to guard its new possession by a chain of forts 
extending from the Great Lakes to the waters of the Gulf, and it is 
of interest to note that the sites of several of these forts became the 
localities on which later cities grew. 

Among these French settlements St. Louis was somewhat late, 
it being first settled in 1764, after the territory had been transferred 
to Spain. It was a mere fur-trading post, settled by French families 
from Illinois, and was not taken under the wing of Spain till 1771. 
In 1780 it was attacked by a force of British and Indians, who killed 
about thirty of its people before being beaten off. Then the Spanish 
authorities fortified the little town, which stood upon the plateau 
above the stream, and in 1787 retaliated by a successful invasion of 
the British territory. In 1803, forty years after the Spanish came 
into possession, the whole territory was ceded to the United States, 
and St. Louis became the most westerly city of the new republic. 
At that rime there were not over two hundred houses in the city, 
which was composed mainly of two streets running parallel to the 
river, and the whole neighboring locality had not over 3,000 inhabi- 
tants. The whole of upper Louisiana at that time contained some- 
thing over 8,000 people, of whom 1,300 were negroes. Such was the 
early condirion of a district which a century afterward held millions 
of inhabitants and celebrated its centennial anniversary by a 
magnificent Worid's Fair. The new city grew at first very slowly. 
It had less than 1,500 people in 1810 and not 6,000 in 1830, but then 
its growth fairly began and has since then been steady and rapid, 
undl it has developed into the great St. Louis of to-day. 

St. Louis has an admirable situarion on the Mississippi, not far 
below the inflowing of the Missouri and the lUinois. It occupies a 
site rising from the river level to 200 feet above in its highest parts, 
and extends nineteen miles along the river front, with an extreme 
width of six and a half miles. The total municipal area, partly 
suburban, is sixty-two and a half square miles. The plan of the city 
is recrilinear, hke that of Philadelphia, which it also follows in its 
system of street names. 

Few cities of the west rival this metropolis of the Mississippi 
Valley in business activity and volume of trade. Its unequaled 
opportunity for river navigation and its mighty fleet of steamboats 
give it control of an immense southward commerce, and the twenty- 
two railroad lines which enter its confines bring it into business con- 



Famous Cities 



539 



tact with all sections of the country. A splendid steel bridge across 
the Mississippi offers ready access to the multitude of railroad trains 
coming from the East. The trade of the city is immense, amounting 
to more than 20,000,000 tons of freight yearly, including consider- 
ably more than half a milhon bales of cotton. Over 2,000,000 head 
of live stock reach the city stock-yards annually, and hog products 
are exported in vast quantities. Wool and grain are other large 
articles of trade. The commerce of the city is rivaled by its manu- 
factures, which include large flour mills and sugar refineries, oil and 




BRIDGE OVER THE ARKANSAS RIVER AT LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS 

chemical works, beer in vast quantities, boots and shoes to a large 
value, tobacco and whisky very extensively, and many minor articles. 
St. Louis has much to recommend it as a city of beautiful archi- 
tecture and a place of residence. Its public buildings and large 
business edifices are many and some of them very attractive. The 
old town was built chiefly of wood, but a devastating fire in 1849 
swept much of it away, and since then it has been far more sub- 
stantially rebuilt. The city is embellished by numerous public 
parks, many of them beautiful places of resort. Of these Forest 



540 Famous Cities 

Park is 1372 acres in extent. Tower Grove Park, of 277 acres, is 
closely adjoined by Shaw's Botanical Gardens, which contain the 
most extensive botanical collection in the United States. 

Missouri possesses various other cities of considerable business 
importance, especially Kansas City and St. Joseph, but to none of 
these any especial interest, beyond that of commercial prosperity, 
attaches. Kansas City, as far west in the state as St. Louis is east, 
began its existence in the muddy little Missouri landing for Westport, 
groveling under its clay banks. At the end of the Civil War, 
with 5,300 souls, there was little indication of the great city of to- 
day with a population of 163,752 in 1900, now claiming 250,000. It 
was made what itisby the coming of the Missouri Pacific Railroad 
and the grand march westward of the American people, who found 
here one of their many resting places. With the broad stretch of 
rich prairie land of Kansas to the west, of which this city became the 
gateway to the east, its future was assured as Kansas grew into a 
great farming and grazing state. On the river-side rose huge grain 
elevators, and along the railroad lines were built immense stock- 
yards, hog-packing becoming the leading industry of the place, the 
annual number of hogs handled here reaching 3,500,000, or double 
the number received in St. Louis. In addition the city has numer- 
ous manufactories, producing a large variety of goods. 

Great part of Kansas City is built upon a series of steep hills. 
On its west lies the state boundary, and a large suburb, holding over 
50,000 people, has strayed over upon the soil of Kansas and become 
the abiding place of great stock-yards and pork-packing plants. 
On the hills of the city site are streets of handsome residences, and 
the public edifices include a number of imposing buildings. The 
Missouri is here crossed by a magnificent railroad bridge used by 
several of the southwestern lines. 

Missouri possesses another business city of great importance in 
St. Joseph, also on the Missouri River and on the Kansas border, 
no river miles above Kansas City. This place, with more than 
100,000 populadon, in 1900, is a large pork-packing place, handling 
more than 2,000,000 hogs yearly, and possessing extensive stock 
yards. Laid out in 1843, and made a city in 1851, a fire in 1893 laid 
a great part of it in ashes. But it has risen again with such energy 
as to double its population since 1890, and has grown into great 
importance as a manufacturing and distributing center. 



Famous Cities 541 

Of the other thriving cities of the state, it must suffice to men- 
don Springfield, a southern city in a rich farming district, and a nest 
of railroads and factories; Sedalia, in the central district and resem- 
bling Springfield, Joplin, a busy mining town in the Ozark Hills; 
Hannibal, a Mississippi river port, with large industries and com- 
merce; and Jeff^erson City, the capital, a small but handsome city 
on the Missouri near the center of the state. 

In dealing with Arkansas we have to do with the most exclusive- 
ly agricultural state in the Union, a very large proportion of its 
people being engaged in farming industries. It has extensive forests 
of yellow pine and other valuable timber, and its mountain region is 
rich in valuable minerals, but these are little developed, while few 
of its people are gathered into cities, it possessing but three of over 
10,000 population. 

Of these the largest and most important is Little Rock, the 
state capital, which held 38,307 inhabitants in 1900, and is a com- 
mercial city of considerable importance. Situated near the center 
of the state, on the broad Arkansas River, we find here a handsome 
and attractive city, its streets well paved, lighted with electricity, 
traversed by electric cars and lined with fragrant magnolias. The 
early canoe travelers up the Arkansas found here a little rock near 
the shore, the first piece of stone they had seen in their 280 mile 
journey from the Mississippi, and from this the place got its peculiar 
name. The city is an active cotton mart, baling in its presses 70,000 
bales of Arkansas cotton yearly and shipping them southward. 
The State capitol and other public institutions are here and the city 
has a large and important local trade. The United States Arsenal 
is famous for its noble old trees, and has one of the finest parade 
grounds in the states. 

At old Fort Smith, on the upper Arkansas, a frontier military 
station where General Taylor, Hancock, and other well-known 
officers spent part of their military career, a city of 11,000 inhabi- 
tants has risen and become a railroad center of some importance. 
Another city of about equal population is Pine Blufi^, on the same 
river, a cotton shipping and manufacturing place. A locality well 
worthy of mention, not as a city but as a center of large resort, is the 
world-renowned Hot Springs, situated on the mountains fifty-five 
miles southwest of Little Rock. Ten thousand people come here 
yearly to seek benefit from the waters, and a settlement of consider- 



542 Famous Cities 

able size has grown up. There are seventy-three springs, varying 
in temperature from 93° to 168°, and pouring out daily 500,000 
gallons of clear water without taste or odor. These waters, in fact, 
contain little mineral matter, their curative properties being due to 
their purity and temperature, the benefit being chiefly derived from 
bathing. There are various other medical springs in the same sec- 
tion of the state. 

In 1778 Captain George Rogers Clark, in his descent of the 
Ohio on the way to his famous conquest of Illinois and Indiana, 
stopped at the rapids of the river and left there some emigrant 
families to guard his supplies during his absence. This duty done, 
they moved from the island on which they had been placed to the 
mainland and built there a village which they named Louisville, 
after Louis XVI of France, then the chief friend of the colonies. 
The village grew into a city, and this prospered so greatly that it 
has become a place of metropolitan dignity, claiming to have 245,000 
people within its confines. At this point the Ohio breaks from its placid 
dignity into a rushing stream descending twenty-six feet within two 
miles, and impassable by vessels except in times of flood. A canal 
was dug around it in 1826-31, and steamboats use this to pass 
the rapids. 

The city of Louisville is handsomely built, with wide and regular 
streets, and a plain sloping up from the river to a plateau seventy 
feet high, facing the picturesque Indiana Knobs. The city 
stretches six miles along the river front. In the residence section 
are broad, shady and well-paved avenues, lined with green embow- 
ered homes, with abundant evidence of comfort and refinement. 
Louisville has always been one of the great gateways to the South, 
but many of its visitors find it pleasanter to sit down in the gate than 
to pass through, and its population is steadily growing. 

The city is a very busy place, with large manufactures and a 
thriving trade. It is abundantly supplied with railroad facilities, 
the roads from the north crossing the stream on two costly bridges. 
By the aid of these iron roads and the great river a large and lucrative 
trading business is done, especially in tobacco, which is extensively 
grown in Kentucky soil, and of which Louisville is the greatest 
market in the world. It is also one of the largest centers in the 
whisky trade, this being also an abundant Kentucky product. 
The manufactures of the city include leather, cement, cotton goods. 



Famous Cities 543 

flour, agricultural implements, and machine-shop products, goods 
of more than ^50,000,000 worth being annually produced. 

A city of a very different kind, seated in the center of the famous 
Blue-Grass region of Kentucky, is Lexington, the great market for the 
thoroughbred horses of which the Kentuckian is justly proud. This 
world-renowned region of the "blue-grass" — -which is not blue 
at all — is 10,000 square miles in extent, composing a rolling plateau 
of very rich dark soil, underlaid by a fossiliferous limestone full of 



JEFFERSON STREET AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS, LOUISVILLE, KY. 
Few cities have grown more rapidly than Louisville in recent years. 

the elements of fertility. Tobacco and hemp, two plants highly 
exhaustive of the soil, grow here of gigantic size without weakening 
the steadily renewed fertiHty of the earth. The pastures are un- 
surpassed, and in addition to their herds of fine cattle and sheep are 
the home of the best blooded stock of American horses, which have 
been carefully bred for years, and furnish the bulk of the race- 
%vinning stud of the country. Lexington, the chief railroad center 
of interior Kentucky, is the principal horse-market of the state, 



544 Famous Cities 

dealers assembling here every spring from all parts of the country to 
attend the annual auctions, which leave yearly several million dollars 
in Kentucky. 

In 1775 a party of the early invaders of the "dark and bloody 
ground" were encamped upon this spot, when there came to them 
news of the stirring events of the East, the shots at Lexington in 
Massachusetts and the opening of the Revolution. They at once 
named their camping ground Lexington, and Lexington it still 
remains. It is to-day a handsome city, of 26,000 people, the seat 
of the University of Kentucky, the State Agricultural and Mechani- 
cal College, and other educational institutions, and the Eastern 
Kentucky Asylum for the insane. A short distance out o^ Lexington, 
on the Richmond road, stands Ashland, a charming mansion with 
beautiful grounds and fine old forest trees. The present mansion 
was built by James B. Clay, on the site of the home of his father, 
Henry Clay, the rich oaken paneHng of the older house being 
preserved in the new one. Here dwelt the great orator and states- 
man, in one of the loveliest regions of the land, himself raising 
thoroughbred horses from which some famous racers have descended. 

Two of the leading business cities of Kentucky, Covington and 
Newport, rise on the banks of the Ohio, immediately opposite 
Cincinnati, having respectively 43,000 and 28,000 inhabitants, and 
being places of very active business. The Licking River flows 
between and separates them. They possess large manufactures 
of glassware, iron goods and other articles, including tobacco and 
whisky, two abundant products of Kentucky. Another important 
place on the Ohio is Paducah, a city of 20,000 inhabitants, with 
abundant railroad facilities. The chief market town of Western 
Kentucky is Frankford, the capital, on the Kentucky River; while 
another place worthy to be named for its antiquityis Harrodsburg, 
the oldest town in the state, and still with less than 3,000 inhabitants. 

The State of Tennessee is distinctively the central state of the 
South. While each of the other states is bounded in part either by 
ocean waters or by States of the North or West, Tennessee lies 
nestled in the heart of the South, everywhere surrounded and closed 
in by its sister states of the Southern section. Mentioning this as 
an interesting feature of this Keystone of the dome of the South, it 
may further be said that Tennessee has been abundantly blessed by 
nature, and is remarkable for the diversity of its several distinct 



Famous Cities 545 

regions. West Tennessee is largely made up of the alluvial bottom- 
lands adjoining the Mississippi, having here a thousand square miles 
covered with magnificent hardwood forests, cedar and cypress 
marshes, and beautiful lakes. This section runs eastward to the 
long steep bluffs of the great undulating plateau, extending eighty- 
five miles to the Tennessee and 9,000 square miles in area. Middle 
Tennessee forms a great elliptical central valley, called from its 
richness of soil the "Garden of Tennessee," and covered with great 
fields of grain, cotton and tobacco and the largest red-cedar forests 
in the land. This is the blue-grass region, on which vast herds of 
domestic animals browse. East Tennessee is a region of mountain 
and valley, beginning in the great Cumberland plateau, a thousand 
feet high and 5,000 square miles in area, and embracing a rugged 
mountain land, covered with some of the richest forests of the 
country, and with vast stores of coal and iron in its hills. Such, very 
briefly, is Tennessee, a rich and productive state, containing an 
intelligent and enterprising population, and dotted over with cities 
possessing much of historical and industrial interest. Chief among 
these are four to which we must devote special attention, Memphis 
in the west, Knoxville in the east, Chattanooga in the south, and 
Nashville in the north central region, all of large population and well 
worthy of description. 

Royally enthroned on the historic Chickasaw Bluffs, command- 
ing a majestic view of the mighty Mississippi — the commerce-laden 
Father of Waters — sits Memphis, the Queen City of the Central 
Mississippi Valley. Occupying a zone midway between the severe 
cold of the north and the enervating heat of the south, it possesses 
the energedc ambition of the former with the languorous courtesy 
and geniality of the latter, absorbing from each its best characteristics 
and embodying it in a system which has won it both commercial 
and social prestige. 

Among all the historical landmarks of this territory the 
Chickasaw Bluffs, on which Memphis is built, stand conspicuously 
prominent. Here the gallant DeSoto and his intrepid followers 
rested in 165 1, in order to construct boats for a voyage down the 
yellow flood of the Mississippi to the sea, an exploration from which 
those who embarked in it never returned. Here occurred the early 
struggles between the Chickasaw Indian tribes, the French and the 
Spanish for possession of this rich domain, continuing until its 

35 



546 Famous Cities 

final control by the United States in 1797. Memphis itself has been 
swept by flood, scourged by fever, devastated by civil war, and para- 
lyzed by political adventurers, but the indomitable energy of 
its people has conquered every opposing influence, and to-day it 
raises its commercial head higher and with a prouder front than ever 
in its history. 

Memphis is located on the fourth Chickasaw bluff", overlooking 
the Mississippi river from an altitude of thirty feet above the highest 
water mark ever known in the history of the valley. It covers an 
area of sixteen square miles and contained a population of 102,320 
in 1900. This is said to have increased to 175,000. The original site 
of the city was laid out in 1819, by Andrew Jackson, John Overton 
and James Winchester, and covered but a small area along the river 
front. At this time the embryo city had a population of just fifty 
souls. It was for many years merely a trading post, where blanketed 
Indians bartered pelts for supplies and the sons of the hardy pioneers 
shot squirrels in the woods where now stand imposing marts of 
commerce. 

Incorporated as a city in 1827, it progressed until in i860 it had 
over 22,000 inhabitants and an active and profitable business. Then 
came the Civil War and with it business paralysis. During the 
entire period of the bitter strife Memphis was a mihtary storm center, 
and the very flower of its citizenship rallied to the cause of the Con- 
federacy. In June, 1862, the city was captured by the Federal 
forces. It was invaded by Gen. Forrest in August, 1864, and 
held for a short time; after which it again passed into Federal 
control, and remained so until the termination of the war. 

After this date chaos ruled supreme, business being disorganized, 
enterprise checked, and the city a prey to polidcal brigandage. Yet 
the citizens soon threw off^ their depression, new population sought 
the locality, and in 1870 the population had grown to 40,000. 
Then came new disasters, yellow fever fell malignantly upon the city 
no less than three times in the decade that followed, and its popula- 
tion fell off^ by 1880 to 33,000. Taught by bitter experience that the 
antique system of leaving health to the hands of chance would no 
longer serve, a modern system of drainage and sanitation was intro- 
duced, v^ith the result that Memphis became one of the healthiest 
cities in the Union, and population flocked to its confines until within 
twenty years it had increased more than threefold. 



Famous Cities 547 

Memphis is to-day on the high road to greatness and rich 
prosperity. With eleven trunk lines of railway and twenty-seven 
Mississippi packets, it occupies a commanding position supreme in 
promise for the future. It stands at the head of all-the-year trans- 
portation on the great river, and has at all times sufficient depth of 
water to float ocean vessels. It possesses also the only bridge across 
the Mississippi south of the Ohio, a great steel structure nearly three 
miles in length, which makes this city the gateway between east and 
west for a section of country several hundred miles wide. 

Among the special features of business distinction possessed 
by Memphis may be named its claim to be the greatest inland cotton 
market in the world. Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Southern 
Missouri, Louisiana and Tennessee are the river states where grow 
luxuriantly the finer qualities of cotton. For the crop of the white- 
topped fields of all these states, with the exception of Louisiana and 
Southern Mississippi, the city of Memphis is the natural and ac- 
cepted market, handfing from 600,000 to 800,000 bales annually, 
representing a value of from ^25,000,000 to ^35,000,000. It is also 
the largest cotton-seed oil producing city in the world. One-twen- 
tieth of the total cotton-seed oil and cake output of this country 
is manufactured here. Though the production of this article of 
commerce is of comparatively recent date, the volume of business 
amounts to over ^30,000,000 per year. 

Memphis further claims to be the largest hardwood lumber 
producing market in the world. There are twenty-six lumber firms 
and mill owners located here, representing an invested capital of 
^7,000,000 and doing a gross business of 300,000,000 feet. From 
a single mill, of small capacity, in 188 1, the trade has widened out 
until now the hum of the saw and the ring of the axe make commer- 
cial music throughout the woodlands of Eastern Arkansas, Northern 
Mississippi, and West Tennessee. The trade, now enormous, is 
conceded to be but on the threshold of what the future may have 
to show. 

The fertile bottomlands of the Mississippi river and its tributary 
streams, have, for centuries, been growing vast forests, which re- 
main in great part untouched while the enterprising foresters of the 
Northern States have depleted their territory almost to exhaustion. 
Hundreds of thousands of acres of choicest varieties of hardwood 
await, in the Central South, the enterprise of lumbermen, and pre- 



548 



Famous Cities 



sent a field for endeavor unequaled on the continent. The great 
rivers and the network of railways afford a system of transportation, 
both for the raw material and the finished product, that can not be 
duplicated. The day has passed when factories using hard- 
wood will depend for it on the forests of Ohio, Indiana, IlHnois and 
Michigan, and the era of lumber development in the great South 
has fairly opened with the new century. In these great forests of the 
Central Mississippi Valley are to be found a greater diversity of 
hardwood than in any other section of the continent. Massive oaks 
and giant cypresses stand guard, as it were, over the cottonwood, 




THE FREIGHT YARDS AT NASHVILLE, TENN. 
One hundred and twenty-seven freight trains a day are handled here. 

ash, hickory, maple, mulberry, poplar, tulip, sweet and black gum, 
walnut, elm, honey locust, holly, redwood, dogwood, until the eye 
of the experienced woodman grows bewildered as he gazes down the 
long and stately forest avenues, which, beautiful as they are, repre- 
sent just so much ungathered wealth. 

In addition to its cotton, lumber, and grain trade, Memphis is 
a large market for cattle and horses and is a manufacturing city of 
great activity, adding to its oil mills a number of large cotton presses, 
grain elevators and ice factories, and a great variety of productive 
enterprises, its manufactories numbering 850 in all. As a residence 
city it has much to recommend it, its climate being temperate and 



Famous Cities 549 

salubrious, its dwellings handsome and commodious, its i,ooo acres 
of public parks delightful places of recreation, its artesian water 
supply unsurpassed in purity, and its public buildings and business 
houses of the most modernized architecture. 

In the good old ante-bellum days, when the Sunny South was a 
garden, when every plantation was a kingdom and its owner a king, 
the Mississippi steamers were the floating palaces which transported 
these financial rulers from place to place. There is nothing in a busi- 
ness way in the South around which is thrown such a halo of romance 
as the dead but not forgotten, days on the "Ole Mississippi." 
Poet and novelist have embalmed in song and story many romances 
of the chivalry and beauty of the South, in which the Mississippi 
steamer was the theater of action. But the march of progress in 
the shape of railways, and the devastation of plantations by the war, 
ushered in a new era for the mighty river. The romance is gone and 
the reality has come; business has driven out poetry; traffic not ro- 
mance, is to-day, the mission of the mighty stream; and in this 
modern transformation Memphis has played a prominent part. 

Passing now to the extreme southeastern section of the State, 
to where the Tennessee River, after a long excursion through 
northern Alabama, returns to its native soil, we meet with one of the 
most active and enterprising of the modern business cities of the 
South, a city which in iron production is a vigorous rival of Birming- 
ham, and which possesses other manufactures in profusion. This 
is the city of Chattanooga, famous for its military history in the 
Civil War, and famous to-dayfor its industrial record. 

Chattanooga occupies a central position in the South. In the 
words of Mr. B. L. Goulding, secretary of its Chamber of Com- 
merce: "At the intersection of a line drawn east and west from 
Wilmington, North Carolina, to Little Rock, Arkansas, by one 
drawn north and south from Cincinnati to Pensacola, is found the 
center of the central South, and close to this point is Chattanooga. 
It is not a gateway, but by its position is the central city of this 
favored region of our land. So well known is it nationally, that a 
recent writer in Harper s Monthly, wishing to fix in the mind of the 
average American the relative latitude of Buenos Ayres, the greatest 
of South American cities, had only to state that it is the same dis- 
tance south of the equator that Chattanooga is north of it." 

This reputation of Chattanooga, however, is of recent date. 



550 Famous Cities 

In the ante-bellum days it was only a little out-of-the way country 
town, with less than 2,000 white citizens, the small importance it 
possessed being due to the railroad then recently completed to 
Atlanta, along the line of which Gen. Sherman's advance in Georgia 
was in after years so gallantly contested inch by inch by the Con- 
federate Army. 

The building of that road made Chattanooga a place of some 
importance as a trans-shipping point for cotton and other products 
of the Tennessee Valley, and under this stimulus the village, by 
i860, had taken on the name and dignity of a city with a population 
of 2,545 inhabitants, over one-fifth of whom were slaves. 

Such was Chattanooga's status when the war came which was 
to ha at once its undoing and its making. The almost inconceivable 
resources of coal, iron, timber and diversified minerals of all sorts, 
from gold to aluminum clay, all about it then lay utterly untouched, 
a latent wealth which its Chamber of Commerce now roughly 
estimates at ^2,500,000,000. 

Early in the war came a strong realization on both sides of the 
importance of Chattanooga as a strategic point. It was the key 
of the central South, the possession of which seemed to mean the 
success or failure of the struggle to maintain the Union. It loomed 
at once into national prominence, which from that day to this it 
has never lost. Like Atlanta, its military importance was based 
on precisely the same reasons which make it to-day so strong 
strategically from a commercial view. It is the hub of a vast wheel 
with spokes radiating out to all parts of the South, and to the remote 
boundaries of the country. 

It was a pivotal point for spreading havoc and destruction 
during the war, just as it now is a pivotal point for the great creative 
forces of commerce and manufacture. The manufactures came 
early on the heels of the war — began, indeed, before the war was 
over. It was no less a person than Gen. William Tecumseh 
Sherman who first began manufacturing in Chattanooga. He was 
the father of the iron industry there. He established its first rolling 
mill and did this when the war was still raging. In the wake of 
the Confederate and United States armies through Tennessee 
there was left a mass of bent and twisted rails along the lines of 
what had been railroads. In order to straighten out these rails and 
rebuild the lines in his rear. Gen. Sherman established the earliest 



Famous Cities 551 

rolling mill known in Chattanooga or anywhere near it. Then 
he went on through Georgia and left a trail of bent and twisted iron 
in his own wake. 

When the war was over and the disheartening task of upbuild- 
ing the South from ruin and desolation began, among the first things 
to be put in order were the railroads that Sherman had wrecked. 
The rails which his army had twisted into fantastic shapes by heat- 
ing them in the middle and bending them around trees were sent 
back here to the rolling mill which the General himself had built, to 
be straightened out and made useful again. 

That was the beginning of the great iron industry in Chatta- 
nooga, which now employs a small army of hands and turns out 
millions of dollars' worth of products every year. Gen. Sherman's 
rolling-mill had ceased to be a Government plant and had become a 
private enterprise before it got the job of straightening out Sherman's 
twisted railroad iron. It was put up at auction by the Government 
at the close of the war and bought in by some men who had thus early 
seen the manufacturing and commercial possibilities of Chattanooga. 
Some of them were originally from the North and some were from 
Macon, Georgia. They got their start by repairing the damaged 
railroad iron. It was in 1866 that this concern, under the name of 
the Southwestern Iron Company, got under way. 

The Roane Iron Company, started three years later, consolidated 
with the Southwestern in 1870, forming an organization which still 
holds a foremost place in the city's industries. In 1890 the South- 
ern Iron Company, with a plant estimated to have cost ^6,000,000 
dollars, began operations, manufacturing steel, as the Roane Iron 
Company had long been doing. The manufacture of steel rails, 
however, dropped out when the price of this article fell from ^80 or 
$90 to ^30 or ^40 a ton. This was a pressure which Chattanooga 
was not prepared to stand, with the open hearth steel to which it was 
confined by the character of its ore. 

But side by side with the iron industry another had sprung into 
existence and had greatly prospered. Almost contemporaneously 
with the opening up of the Southwestern Iron Company's works a 
little sawmill was started by a couple of enterprising young men, and 
this has now grown to be the largest individual furniture factory in 
the South, not even excepting any of those at High Point, in North 
Carolina, where such marvels in the way of furniture production are 



552 Famous Cities 

being wrought. The iron-working business and the wood-working 
business, both with unlimited supplies of raw material at the very 
doors of the city, have grown up side by side in Chattanooga and 
form the great props on which the place now leans. 

Taking the Roane Iron Company and the big furniture company 
in their humble beginning as a starting point, it is surprising to hear 
the roll call of Chattanooga's manufacturing concerns as it is now 
read off to the inquiring visitor. There is no better summary of the 
present status of Chattanooga's industrial achievement than that 
presented by Captain Goulding, a few years ago. He said: 

"As the result of low cost of production, good business methods 
and reasonable transportation rates, the largest slate-pencil, curtain- 
pole, acetylene-gas burner, kitchen furniture and iron soil-pipe Works 
in the world, the largest oak-bark tanning and metallic paint works 
in the United States, and the largest patent medicine, hosiery, furni- 
ture, boiler, steel-roofing, wagon and refrigerator works in the 
South are here. In variety and value of products Chattanooga 
easily outstrips any other Southern city of its size. It is a great and 
growing center for iron casting and machine work, flour and patent 
medicine, and in the construction of steam boilers is, next to Penn- 
sylvania, the chief seat of that industry in the country." 

As regards the population of the city, estimated by the 1900 
census at 30,154, it is well to state that this low estimate was due to the 
absurdly contracted limits of the municipal area, and did not include 
the suburbs which are distinctively a portion of Chattanooga. The 
population is now estimated at 60,000. Its progress was 
in a measure checked by the speculative "boom" which struck it 
about 1890, which ran up real estate to ridiculously high prices, and 
which, when it subsided, left many of the inhabitants stranded high 
and dry. Its experience in this respect was that of many other cities 
of the South and elsewhere. And like every community in the 
country, Chattanooga suffered from the great business depression 
which came in 1893. 

But in due course of time things began to stir once more in their 
old normal, healthy way. The worst of it was all over and the 
town was rapidly convalescing when along came the Spanish war 
and the concentration of 60,000 soldiers. Then Chattanooga be- 
came herself once more. The large amounts of money left here by 
the soldiers undoubtedly did more to loosen things up, pay off 



Famous Cities 553 

mortgages, and restore spirit and confidence, than anything that ever 
occurred in the history of the city. Things began coming Chatta- 
nooga's way once more in real earnest. Manufacturing revived 
all along the line, new industries were started up, and business of all 
kinds swept into the great current of prosperity which has flowed 
over the country ever since. 

By no means an unimportant feature in the city's resources is 
the establishment of a permanent army post here by the Government, 
involving, as it will, the expenditure of fully a million dollars and 
the concentration here during several months of every year of several 
thousands of State soldiers to be exercised by Regular Army officers 
in large evolutions, while the militia officers at the same time will 
have experience in handling troops. Ultimately it will become a 
great field of military manoeuvres similar to those in France and 
Germany, and the events will bring here regularly, every year, 
thousands of visitors in addition to the large bodies of the soldiery 
themselves. The work of constructing the barracks is now in 
progress at Chickamauga Park, and the Seventh United States 
Cavalry is stationed there. 

The attractions of Chattanooga's vicinity from a scenic and 
historical point of view are unmatched by those of any other city 
in the country. Tourists from all parts of the world come here 
every year and none of the personally conducted excursions to the 
South, the Southwest, Mexico and California by way of the Southern 
Pacific Railway is counted as complete unless it includes Chatta- 
nooga in its itinerary. The nearly 7,000 acres of land owned by the 
Government and converted into that marvelously preserved and 
accurately marked battlefield of Chickamauga, the superb series of 
boulevards that wind along Missionary Ridge, — likewise built by the 
Government, — and finally the panorama spread out before those 
who stand on the dizzy cliff' of Lookout Mountain, are attractions 
which those who once see are pretty apt to come to see again. 
For the great work of creating Chickamauga Park and marking all 
the hundreds of historic spots with splendid monuments and clearly 
descriptive tablets Chattanooga feels that it is indebted to Gen. 
H. V. Boynton, and he is held here in correspondingly high esteem. 

While on the subject of iron manufacture, we must turn for 
a while to Knoxville, the "Queen City of the Mountains," and the 
original capital of Tennessee. It is one of the old cities of the state, 



554 



Famous Cities 



founded in 1792, while the state to be was claimed by North Caro- 
lina as one of its counties. The old capitol building is still in a good 
state of preservation and is one of the show places of the town. Here 
in the early days of the place dwelt General John Sevier, the hero of 
the famous King's Mountain fight, and in later times Davy Crockett, 
Andrew Johnson, Parson Brownlow, and others of note. The city has 
a population of 32,000 or of 50,000 as locally enumerated, and is 
beautifully situated in the mountain section of East Tennesee, on the 




KNOXVILLE, THE MOUNTAIN CITY OF TENNESSEE 

Tennessee River, which after passing Chattanooga curves far upward 
through the hill country of the state. The river is navigable for 
boats for seventy miles above Knoxville, and below it to the far 
distant Ohio. It is crossed by an unusually large number of bridges 
for a city of this size, two of them being splendid railroad bridges. 
Knoxville is a place of solid development, a city abounding in 
beautiful homes, and surrounded by charming scenery of mountain 
and river, looking from its throne of hills in the center of the valley 
southward to the magnificent line of the Smoky Mountains. It 



Famous Cities 555 

is the literary, commercial and political capital of East Ten- 
nessee. Hither in 1889 were brought from North Alabama the 
remains of the renowned John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, 
and interred with much ceremony. Here is the flourishing Univer- 
sity of Tennessee, and other educational institutions, and the city in 
many ways is a very attractive one. 

As regards the manufacturing development of Knoxville, its 
plants number nearly three hundred in all. Among these is a cotton 
mill with 2,300 spindles; the largest woolen mill in the South; a 
cotton warp mill of 5,000 spindles, equipped with the most modern 
machinery; a rolling mill, foundries, stove factories, and other iron- 
working plants; several large marble works, flour mills, furniture 
manufactories, and many others. Among them are the large shops 
of the Southern Railroad, with their eleven buildings spread over 
one hundred acres and employing some 750 men. 

In the heart of the great central basin of Tennessee, and on the 
winding Cumberland River, is seated historic Nashville, the capital 
of Tennessee and one of the most important and attractive towns 
of the State. Founded in 1780, very early in the history of that 
region, a few years only after the first hardy pioneers reached its soil, 
it was incorporated as a town in 1784 and as a city in 1806. Here 
came Andrew Jackson and opened a law office in 1788, and here he 
married one of the fair daughters of the little settlement in 1792. 
He was rarely absent from Nashville during the remainder of his 
life, and died there in his historic home, the Hermitage. The 
legislature met at Nashville, except for an eleven year interval, from 
1 8 12 to 1843, though it was not formally made the State capital till 
the latter year. During the Civil War it was occupied by Federal 
troops in February 1862, and was held till the end of the war, being 
so strongly fortified as to repel the resolute assault of General Hood 
in December, 1864. 

After the war the town grew and prospered; gaining a popula- 
tion of 25,865 in 1870, which was more than triply increased in the 
next thirty years, reaching to 84,865 in 1900. It is now estimated by 
its mayor at 164,000, double its population in the census year. 
Its growth in size was largely due to its development in manufact- 
uring enterprise and in distributing business. The hardwood 
lumber, which Tennessee grows in such profusion, is very largely 
manufactured in Nashville, it being unsurpassed in this industry; 



556 Famous Cities 

in the flour milling business it is the chief city in the South, and 
the second in extent of its jobbing trade, of which cotton and 
tobacco are the chief staples, cotton being among its materials of 
manufacture. There is also a large trade in live-stock. 

As a city Nashville is well-built and handsome, and possesses 
many attractive public and educational buildings^ The river bluffs 
upon which it stands rise nearly eighty feet above the river, the city 
extending along gradual slopes, and being picturesquely grouped 
around Capitol Hill, on which stands the State-House, one of the 
most attractive public buildings in the country. 

The number of important educational institutions in Nashville 
have given it the name of the "Athens of the South." Here is the 
University of Nashville, dating back for its first origin to 1785; 
the amply endowed and important Vanderbilt University; theWalden 
University, founded by the Methodists; the Fisk University, one of 
the foremost schools for the education of the colored race; and 
the Peabody College, as non-sectarian institution. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE SOUTH AS A SUMMER AND WINTER 
PARADISE FOR THE TOURIST 

The South newly discovered — The land of the sky — The American Switzerland — The 
Asheville region — Virginia's watering places — South Carolina's health resorts — - 
The attractions of Georgia — Its favorite springs — Jekyl and Cumberland Islands 
— Florida and its resorts — Gulf coast watering places — Sports in the South — 
Deer shooting and fishing. 

WITHIN recent years the North has "discovered" the South 
in a new and most attractive sense, discovered it as a land 
of beauty and charm, of health-giving climate and ceaseless 
enjoyment, of cool resorts in the heats of summer and warm retreats 
from the chill of winter, of picturesque mountain scenery, delightful 
lowland regions in which floral and umbrageous beauty runs riot, 
salubrious seaside localities, and lands in which the tropic and 
temperate zones meet and mingle and the earth teems with the 
choicest treasures of both. More and more fully is this discovery 
being made; more and more numerously are the pleasure seekers 
from the North invading the South; annually they pour far and wide 
over its soil from mountain to sea, and more and more closely are the 
two sections becoming bound together as one by the ties of social 
amenities, friendly interchange of sentiment, and all that tends to the 
banishment of prejudice and the birth of kindly fellow feeling. 

In the line of health and pleasure resorts the South is fortunate, 
alike in the great number and the wide variety of its places of 
attraction. Many people, especially those living in the North and 
West, think of the South only as a place to be visited in the winter 
season. But this holds good only for its lowland resorts, not for 
its broad mountain region, with a multitude of heights elevated 
into the cool upper air. As a matter of fact, there is no region 
in America superior in its inducements to the tourist at any season 

557 



558 



A Summer and Winter Paradise 



of the year, both as to scenic and cHmatic advantages, than the 
"Land of the Sky," in western North Carolina and eastern Tenn- 
essee. At the mountain resorts in this region the average summer 
temperature is several degrees loWer than in either the White 
Mountains or in the Catskills, a fact due to its altitude, which 




HUNTING LODGE, AIKEN, S. C. 
Built by the late W. C. Whitney, who selected this spot as the most delightful 

in the country. 

ranges from 2,200 to 6,700 feet above sea level. In winter 
thousands of visitors from the North are attracted to this region by 
its wonderful freedom from dampness. So remarkable is this 
climatic characteristic that the United States Government has 
issued special scientific bulletins In explanation. 



A Summer and Winter Paradise 559 

In summer this fair region, of which Asheville is the commercial 
and social center, is one of the most enjoyable regions in all the world 
for recreation and rest, and within recent years it has become what 
Switzerland is to Europe — an international resting-place. 

Asheville by no means stands alone as a mountain resort in this 
region of delight. North Carolina presenting dozens of other spots in 
which tourists congregate, while on the Tennessee side are Lookout 
Mountain, Tate Springs and numerous other places suitable for 
all-the-year-round health and pleasure resorts. The attractions 
of these and many other places have become known within a decade 
or two of years, and the hegira thitherward grows annually greater 
in numbers, while hotels and resting places within which ail the 
refinements of life may be enjoyed are rapidly on the increase. 

For an enthusiastic yet truthful account of the North Carolina 
summering region we cannot do better than to quote from "The 
Empire of the South," a descriptive volume published by the 
Southern Railway Company. "Europe may have her Switzerland, 
the West its Colorado, the Pacific coast may glory in her Sierra 
Nevada and British Columbia in her Cascade range, but nowhere on 
the face of the earth is there a region more picturesquely, more 
charmingly beautiful than the mountain country of western North 
Carolina, poetically known as 'The Land of the Sky.' It is true there 
are mountains of greater elevation in each of the localities named, but 
the greatest canvases in the gallery of art are not the choicest gems, 
nor is the beauty of nature to be measured on geodetic lines. 
Where the mountain ranges of the West are rugged, barren and 
forbidding, those in western North Carolina are robed in deep- 
hued forests to their highest summits. Where the greater peaks of 
the Sierra Nevada frown, those of *The Land of the Sky' smile with 
banks of rhododendrons and azalias. Where the valleys of the one 
are rocky and impassable gorges, in the other they are fern-carpeted 
forest labyrinths, through which crystal streams tumble merrily along 
over moss-grown rocks in their race to the open. 

"Picture in your mind a region where range after range of heavily 
forested mountains parallel each other like waves of the sea, where 
interlacing valleys are rich with verdure and flowers, and where silver 
streams murmur unceasingly. Imagine an air so light and pure that 
breathing itself seems a new-found joy, then throw over all a can- 
opy of bluest of Italian blue, and you have *The Land of the Sky.* 



s6o A Summer and Winter Paradise 

"Land of forest-clad mountains, of fairy-like streams, 
Of low, pleasant valleys where the bright sunlight gleams 
Athwart fleecy clouds gliding over the hills, 
Midst the fragrance of pines and the murmur of rills. 

"A land of bright sunsets, whose glories extend 
From horizon to zenith, there richly to blend 
The hues of the rainbow with clouds passing by — 
Right well art thou christened 'The Land of the Sky.* 

"A land of pure water, as pure as the air; 

A home for the feeble, a home for the fair; 

Where the wild roses bloom, while their fragrance combines 

With health-giving odors from balsamic pines. 

"As far from the frigid North as from the zone 
Where the sun's torrid rays come sweltering down, 
Upraised toward the heavens whose azure seems nigh — 
Right fitly thou'rt christened 'The Land of the Sky.' 

"The mountains that shield from the rude northern blast — 
Mute monitors, they, of the ages long past — 
Like sentinels watch o'er the valley below 
Where the swift crystal streams unceasingly flow. 

"The pure, healthful breezes, the life-giving air, 
The beauteous landscapes, oft new, ever fair. 
Are gifts that have come from the Father on high, 
To Him be all praise for 'The Land of the Sky.' 

"This rugged mountain region embraces the extreme western 
portion of North Carolina and the eastern edge of Tennessee. 
Within these confines are several districts, alike in their general 
features, but each having distinct charms and advantages peculiarly 
its own. The one most generally visited has Asheville for its 
tourist center. None the less beautiful, however, is that country in 
and about Blowing Rock and Grandfather's Mountain, of which 
Lenoir is the entrepot. Southeast of Asheville is the Flat Rock and 
Tryon region, which attracts many visitors because of its charming 
environments. Southwest of Asheville, and between that city and 
Murphy, is the Balsam Mountain country, wild, solitary, and Swiss- 
like, with the Hayward Sulphur Springs as its chief tourist rendez- 
vous. Over to the west, and near the Tennessee line, is the less 
rugged but more picturesquely beautiful territory in and about the 



A Summer and Winter Paradise 



561 



Hot Springs, while almost due north from here and across the 
Tennessee line looms up, in the majesty of its towering height, 
Roan Mountain, crowned by a hotel, the highest building east of 
Colorado, and a favorite summer gathering place for people from 




THE HEALTH OF THE LOWER SOUTH 

Artesian wells and drainage have banished malaria and fevers and reduced the death- 
rate (especially of white persons) in many Southern cities and localities much below 
the average for the rest of the country. This photograph shows one of the 8 artesian 
wells (950 feet deep) which supply Jacksonville, Fla. The waterworks are in a square 
in the middle of the city. 

near and far. Taken as a whole, no similar area in the western conti- 
nent compares with the 'Land of the Sky' in beauty and sublimity. 
In square miles it is the equal of Switzerland; in attractiveness, ac- 
cessibility and health, its rival." 

36 



5^2 A Summer and Winter Paradise 

We have not the space at our command to describe the many 
popular resorts in the mountain region here so warmly and poetically 
portrayed. Asheville, the center of its most beautiful locality, we 
have elsewhere spoken of, but it is well to epitomize its attractions, 
as admirably summed up by S. Westray Battle, M D., in an article 
recently published in the Medical Record of New York. He says: 

** Nestled in the heart of the Alleghanies. cradled by the Blue 
Ridge and Great Smokies, stretches the Asheville plateau, a most 
desirable and beautiful section of ccuntry, m close touch with the 
East and North, and most accessible rorm all points South and West. 
It has become the great sanatorium of the eastern United States. 
It enjoys a climate sui generis, representing the golden mean of 
altitude and latitude and the several meteorological conditions 
which go to make up a wholesome and fascinating resort. Nowhere 
east of the Rocky Mountains is there anything approaching it to be 
found for fall and winter, spring and summer — ^an all-the-year- round 
retreat. It is cool in summer, yet the winters, shorn of their harsh- 
ness by reason of its southern latitude, induce almost daily out-of- 
door exercise in the way of shooting, riding, driving or short moun- 
tain excursions on foot. For lovers of golf it is ideal; and at Ashe- 
ville, the center of the plateau, are united the comforts of a city with 
the delights of the country. 

"The plateau is an elevated tableland, somewhat triangular in 
shape, embracing some six thousand square miles of western North 
Carolina, with a general elevation of two thousand feet above the sea 
level, though altitudes up to six thousand feet may be had for the 
climbing any day in the year. Hills, valleys, rivers and forests so 
diversify this intramontane expanse as to make it lovely and restful 
to the eye beyond the power of my pen to portray. " 

Leaving the highlands and descending to the ocean level, we 
find in the South a multitude of highly desirable summer watering 
places. Virginia presents us two of these. Old Point Comfort and 
Virginia Beach, which rank among the most famous of our seaside 
resorts. The former is upon the historic waters of Hampton Roads, 
which is formed by the confluence of Chesapeake Bay and the James 
River. Its fine and popular hotels adjoin Fortress Monroe, one of 
the largest of the Government's military posts, and overlook the 
beautiful sheet of water which was the scene of the great naval duel 
between the Monitor and the Merrimac, and which is now the winter 



A Summer and Winter Paradise 5^3 

station of the White Squadron. The peculiarly delightful climate, 
added to the brilliant social life, has made Old Point a most popular 
resort in winter time for Northern people and in summer for visitors 
from the South. 

Virginia Beach, at which there is a modern hotel, the Princess 
Anne, is seventeen miles due east from Norfolk and directly upon the 
ocean. This beautiful resort is a favorite rendezvous for people 
from Southern cities during the summer, and the hotel is always filled 
with guests during the winter from New York and the North. Its 
beach is a fine white strand, with deep woodlands as a background to 
the breaking surf. 

We have said so much about the Alleghany Mountain resorts 
that nothing further seems here called for, but we cannot leave 
Virginia without saying that its mountains, and those of Maryland as 
well, contain numerous picturesque and healthful points of attrac- 
tion. Among its popular summer resorts is Buford, near the Peaks 
of Otter; Liberty, eight miles from the Peaks; Roanoke, in the lovely 
valley of that name; Mountain Lake, 4,500 feet in height on the 
Alleghanies; Wytheville, with its rare winter climate, and various 
others. Widely scattered through the mountain region is a pro- 
fusion of mineral springs, visited annually by multitudes of invalids, 
including the White Sulphur, Yellow Sulphur and Red Sulphur 
Springs, alum, iron and lithia springs, hot springs and warm springs, 
with names too numerous to mention, and many of them highly 
popular alike as social and health resorts. 

Passing to South Carolina, we find in its capital city a locality 
unsurpassed as a health resort. Built on a granite spur of the Pied- 
mont region, it possesses a highly agreeable winter climate, with 
crisp and bracing air and admirably free from unhealthful weather. 
Still more attractive as a health resort is Aiken, a small city southwest 
of Columbia, near the Georgia line. Its splendid climate has made 
it one of the leading resorts for invalids and others in the South, 
and many wealthy Northerners have built handsome residences there. 
Within a few miles of Aiken are several successful cotton mills, but 
the city itself has no factories of any kind; it prides itself upon being 
a health and pleasure resort, and has made no effort in the direction 
of manufactures. It has recently been made famous by the magnif- 
icent Palmetto golf links, acknowledged to be the best south of New 
York, being about three miles around, composed of eighteen holes, 



5^4 A Summer and Winter Paradise 

and laid out by two of the most celebrated players of Boston and 
New York. The woods for miles around are well stocked with both 
the gray and the red fox. The mean temperature of Aiken is 52 
degrees; it has a strictly temperate climate during the winter season, 
being just cold enough for one to enjoy a walk, and still so warm in 
the sunshine that there are very few days when it is not pleasant to sit 
beneath its rays. Aiken has the driest climate of which there is any 
record east of the Rocky Mountains. Its hotels are equipped with 
every convenience of modern comfort. 

We may say the same of Augusta, Georgia, as of Aiken, its 
delightful climate making it one of the most popular of the winter 
resorts in the South, and attracting thousands of visitors annually. 
Lying as it does in the center of the pine-ridge section of the State, 
it is remarkably free from humidity. The city is well supplied with 
modern hotels, especially the popular Hotel Bon Air, one of the best 
known hostelries of the South. The golf links here rival those at 
Aiken and golf playing is a favorite sport throughout the winter. 

Georgia is by no means wanting in other health resorts, includ- 
ing Marietta, near the Kenesaw Mountain; Thomasville, in the 
pine region, whose peculiarly dry climate adapts it admirably to 
those suffering from pulmonary troubles; Eastman, in the park-like 
upland pinery of Middle Georgia; Hillman, famous for its great 
electric shaft, where thousands of rheumatics seek relief, making 
electric circuits by clasping hands while one of them touches the 
rock. There are in addition various important mineral springs. 
Lithia Springs, twenty miles from Atlanta, are said to possess the 
strongest lithia water in the country, and are famous for their 
powers of cure. There is here a handsome hotel and a well-equipped 
bath-house. 

The Indian Springs are one and a half miles from Flovilla, which 
is on the line to Brunswick, fifty-one miles southeast of Atlanta. 
The springs were originally purchased from the Indians by the state 
and their waters have been famous for many years. In the earlier 
times, and before the excellent hotel accommodations now found 
there were provided, the spot used to be a common camping ground 
for the people who came here in great numbers from the surrounding 
country to seek the benefits to be derived from the waters. 

The Warm Springs are on the Columbus division of the Southern 
Railway, forty-two miles from Columbus and seventy-five miles from 





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A Summer and Winter Paradise 5^5 

Atlanta. The place is one of the most charming resorts of the South, 
famous alike for the curative properties of its waters and for its 
most delightful surroundings. The country round about the Warm 
Springs is broken and picturesque, and has an altitude of about 1,200 
feet above sea level. The surface drainage being perfect, and the 
underlying material being sandstone and gravel, there is no malaria. 
The bathing establishment is amply supplied with water, which 
gushes from the springs at the rate of 1,400 gallons a minute and at 
90 degrees of temperature. The waters are excellent for rheuma- 
tism, dyspepsia, and some other ailments, and are largely patronized. 

Georgia possesses several popular seaside resorts in the vicinity 
of the progressive port of Brunswick. Prominent among these is 
Jekyl Island, a haven of rest and health. On it is one of the finest 
clubhouses in the South, built of Georgia pine and facing the sea. 
In the winter the island is the home of many Northern families, who 
find the balm of the mild climate a refreshing change from the rigor 
of Northern weather. Another island resort is old St. Simons, 
famed as the scene of a bloody Spanish massacre, and as the place 
where the saintly John Wesley preached his sermon in America. It 
was on St. Simons too, at a later time, that Aaron Burr was con- 
cealed in one of the stormy periods of his life after the Hamilton 
duel. In the happy life of the present there is little to suggest this 
stormy past, and St. Simons now rests in serenest peace. 

Still another beautiful island near Brunswick is Cumberland, 
with its splendid beach, the finest doubtless in America. It stretches 
for eighteen miles, hard almost as marble and glistening white. 
On Cumberland Island is the fine estate of "Dungeness," on which 
Light-Horse Harry Lee, the ancestor of General Robert E. Lee, and 
General Nathaniel Greene, Washington's most trusted lieutenant, 
settled after the Revolutionary War. It is now owned by Mrs. Car- 
negie, and she has erected on it a great country house, a romantic 
pile of granite and adobe. On the beach near the Government 
lighthouse a fine hotel has been built. 

Florida, that tongue of land in which the United States stretches 
southward nearest to the tropics, is becoming a necessary place of 
winter relief from the harshness of the North to a rapidly increasing 
number of pilgrims, who follow the birds thither in their autumn 
flight, finding under Florida's blue skies and in its balmy airs a 
welcome escape from the storms of snow and sleet of their native 



566 



A Summer and Winter Paradise 



states. Of the resorts which have made the east coast famous, St. 
Augustine, our oldest city, stands farthest north. This place, with 
the quaint relics of its old-time life, and its splendid hotels, of which 
the Ponce de Leon is the chief, is too well known to need more than a 




GARDEN OF THE WHITNEY HUNTING LODGE AT AIKEN, S. C. 

passing mention. A lavish expenditure of money has created here 
a paradise as fascinating as it is beautiful, and having such a marked 
individuality that it cannot be compared with any other spot in the 
United States. 

There are pretentious tourist hotels at Ormond and Rock 
Ledge, and far south of the latter several famous hostelries, the 
Royal Poniciana and Palm Beach Inn at Palm Beach, and the Royal 
Palm and Biscayne at Miami. This entire section of the state has 



A Summer and Winter Paradise 5^7 

grown into such world-wide notoriety as a delightful wintering 
region, and is so highly popular as a gathering place of fashionable 
society, that it might justly be given the name of the "American 
Riviera." 

Jacksonville, fifteen miles inland, on a bend of the St. John's 
River, is the metropolis of the state, and a pleasure resort of such 
attractiveness that its winter guests number nearly 80,000. Palatka, 
on the St. John's farther south, is also a favorite town center. 
In the central highlands are several attractive resorts, including 
Altamonte Springs, on Lake Orienta; the Seminole Hotel, amid the 
orange-groves of Winter Park; Ocala, and Lake Wier, with a num- 
ber of mineral springs which are visited by many invalids. The 
Tampa Bay Hotel, at Tampa, on the Gulf Coast, is one of the finest 
hotels in the country, and another of great size and attractiveness is 
Panta Gorda Hotel, at Charlotte Harbor. 

It has been said that the Florida year is made up of eight months 
of summer and four months of warm weather. The winters are 
like the Indian Summers of the North. Mrs. Stone speaks of the 
St. John's country as "a child's Eden." The climate in winter is 
remarkably dry and healthful, warmer on the Atlantic than on the 
Gulf, and varying considerably from the great extension of the 
state north and south. A season there is especially helpful to all 
afflicted with bronchial and lung troubles, rheumatism, nervous 
prostration and similar diseases. 

The states bordering on the Gulf have their attractions and 
their visitors, though they do not bring together such a multitude 
of immigrants from the North as the Atlantic and mountain states. 
One of the most attractive places to tourists in Alabama is Monte 
Sano, close by Huntsville. Here, at an elevation of 1,700 feet, is a 
charmingly situated hotel commanding beautiful views of the 
surrounding mountains and their lovely valleys, and popular as an 
all-the-year-round resort. 

Mississippi has its most popular tourists' localities on the coast. 
Here are Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Biloxi and Ocean Springs, 
resorts of wide-spread fame, and attracting hosts of visitors, wha 
compose largely their winter population. In summer these inviting 
places, fanned as they are by the cool and invigorating breezes of the 
Gulf of Mexico, are the favorite resorts of the well-to-do classes 
from New Orleans and the cities of Mississippi and Louisiana. In 



5^8 A Summer and Winter Paradise 

winter the hotels, of which thete are a number at each place, are 
filled with people from the North, East and West, who find here 
the delightful conditions of an ideal climate, splendid opportunities 
for out-of-door life, and as fine fishmg and sailing as are to be had 
anywhere on the continent. The fishing is really remarkable, and 
the sport as it is indulged in is of the most enjoyable kind. This 
immediate section of the Gulf coast is replete with attractions and is 
growing rapidly in popular favor. 

Louisiana also has attractive places of resort, and the climate 
of its coastal region draws thither annually many families from the 
North. Its saline and breezy air is excellent for sufferers from 
rheumatism, catarrh, bronchitis and consumption. The same may 
be said of Texas, and especially of its many mineral springs, which 
have built up health resorts by the score. 

"The Empire of the South" gives the following description 
of the opportunity for sport afforded by Southern waters and woods: 
"The opportunities for all varieties of shooting and fishing in the 
South are most excellent, and the seasons are so extended that out- 
of-door life is enjoyable during the entire winter. Virginia and 
North Carolina have long been favorite regions for quail-shooting, 
and these swift-winged denizens of woodland and stubblefield are 
undoubtedly more abundant in these two states than anywhere else 
north or south. They are to be found, however, in satisfactory 
numbers in all of the Southern States, but in the more southern 
regions they do not attain as great a size, nor are they as strong and 
swift of flight, as in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. 

"The great salt-water bays and marshes of the coast of North 
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia teem with ducks and geese, 
while brant and swan may be killed in large numbers in season. 
Excellent sport of this class is also to be had on many of the streams 
in Alabama and Mississippi. 

"The smaller water birds, such as rail, reed-birds, snipe and 
plover, are plentiful all along the coast from Norfolk to Florida, and 
the sportsman will find especially good shooting of this class in the 
neighborhood of Morehead City, N. C. and Brunswick, Ga. Wood- 
cock are plentiful in many places in Virginia, Noith Carolina, 
Tennessee and Kentucky, and wild turkeys are found in all of the 
Southern states, being particularly abundant in Florida. 



A Summer and Winter Paradise 5^9 

"While Virginia has long been a favorite resort for deer hunters, 
each of the other states offers good shooting. In Georgia, Florida, 
Alabama and Mississippi deer are especipily pientiful, and are killed 
each season in such numbers as to astonish the average sportsman of 
the North. In the mountain regions of western North Carolina and 
eastern Tennessee many black bears are killed each winter. 

"The mountain streams offer the best of brook-trout fishing, and 
in several of those in North Carolina which have been stocked the 
large rainbow trout are taken by the skilful angler in satisfactory 
numbers. Black bass are found in great numbers in Virginia, the 
Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky. The region round about 
Brunswick, Ga. is the best on the Atlantic coast for salt-water 
fishing, an infinite variety of sea fish being taken in the nearby waters. 
There are many other places where excellent luck will attend the 
sportsman, notably the famous resorts on the Gulf Coast and Florida. 
No other section of the country is comparable to the South to-day 
in the great variety and quantity of game. " 




CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE SOUTH IN ITS PERFORMANCE 
AND ITS PROMISE 

The era of hostile relations — The evils of reconstruction — President Johnson and 
Congress — The troops withdrawn — Manufacture and the tariff — Growth of 
harmony — The South a rival of New England — Great railroad progress — South- 
ern waterways and Gulf port commerce — The Southern city of coming time — 
A prophetic outlook. 

ETURNING from the field of description of the civic and 
scenic South, it is here in place to take up again the historic 
topic and review its steps of progress and changes in condi- 
tion. In former chapters it was shown that the Civil War ran 
like a d?vidmg stream between two Souths, that of the slave and the 
plantation and that of the freed man, the farm and the factory. The - 
distinction in condition between the two eras is marked and the 
difference in habits and feelings strongly declared. The old quiet, 
patriarchal life of plantation days has long been at an end and a new 
life of bustle and business activity is taking its place. And with this 
change has come a decided transmutation in the sentiments enter- 
tained for each other by the two great sections of the country. 

For decades before the war a state of hostility existed between 
these sections, growing intense and bitter as time moved on, its 
inspiring cause being the interference of a large party in the North 
with the long-established industrial system of the South. The Civil 
War, by freeing the slave, removed the motive for this phase of 
hostjie relations. The "peculiar institution" no longer existed as a 
generator of bad blood, a stirrer up of ill feeling. And as the people 
of the South gradually came to perceive that their loss, in this partic- 
ular, was much less than had been feared, that apart from the great 
temporary pecuniary difficulty from the freeing of the slaves they 
were actually in a better and more satisfactory condition Industrially 
than they had been before, the feeling of irritation which might 
have long persisted from this cause passed away. As soon as the 

570 



. Performance and Promise 571 

decision was reached that they were better ofF without the slaves 
than with them, and that they would not be willing to accept the 
slave system again if it were offered them, the dregs of ill feeling 
which the act of emancipation left behind began to vanish. The 
negro promised to be as serviceable as a freeman as he had been 
as a slave, and it was a happy relief to be rid of the burden of re- 
sponsibility which slavery had entailed, and of the source of the 
political quarrels which had so long ruffled up the feelings and 
troubled the souls of South and North alike. Man is essentially 
conservative. He has a natural reluctance to fly from the ills to 
which he is accustomed to those he knows not of. But once the 
Rubicon is passed and he finds his feet on firmer soil than before, 
he is apt to accept with relief the change, however radical it may be. 
But the war left beh nd it elements of irritation for the time 
being harder to bear than those which the conflict had brought to 
an end. Aside from the bitter feeling of enmity engendered by the 
war itself, and which, with many of the war veterans, only death 
could remove, there were new causes of irritation, temporary no 
doubt, yet hard to bear while they continued. Had President 
Lincoln survived very likely this would have been much mitigated, 
for he was evidently not disposed to keep open old sores. Had 
President Johnson shown himself more wordly wise in his dealings 
with Congress a like result may have been achieved. As it was, all 
worked for the worst. Congress was disposed to make the South 
feel the pains of conquest, and in the bitter quarrel which arose 
between this body and the President the people of the South were 
like the grains between the upper and nether millstones. The 
powers of the Government jangled and the South suffered. Had the 
methods of reconstruction, indeed, been specially planned with the 
purpose of causing needless irritation, they could not have been 
better devised. To put those who recently had been slaves in the 
position of political lords was looked upon as an insult of the deepest 
dye. The late masters felt bitterly humiliated, and naturally 
refused to take part with their incompetent ex-slaves in the difficult 
task of government. And the time-serving carpet-baggers who 
took the ignorant blacks in hand and manipulated them for their 
own dishonest ends added by their acts to the irritation and humilia- 
tion of the whites. Resistance was useless. The Weak were in the 
grasp of the strong, But we can well comprehend why the whites 



572 Performance and Promise. 

of the South washed their hands of the whole sorry business, and 
dwelt in sullen silence at home, the wiser among them quietly biding 
their time, for they knew that such a blind satire upon government 
as this could not long be upheld. The evil was sure to cure itself. 

It would have been far better for all concerned if President 
Johnson's warrant for the formation of new State governments in 
the South, arbitrary as it was regarded by Congress, had been 
allowed to stand. , It would have saved the years of military rule 
and negro legislation that followed, while all of permanent value 
thac was accomplished in the end could have been had at the start, 
and the intermediate humiliation been avoided. The conventions 
which were called in 1865 repealed the secession ordinances, repu- 
diated the war-debt of the Confederacy, and ratified the Thirteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution. Had the Southern States been 
allowed to begin business again under these regulations there is no 
reason to doubt that they would have assented to the legislation 
afterward enacted, or at least that of which the wisdom has been 
since proved. The principal objection would have been to the 
Fifteenth Amendment, and to-day there is a wide-spread sentiment 
that political considerations entered into this far more fully than 
national requirement. We have already considered in another 
chapter the moving force behind this amendment and it is not 
necessary to repeat it here. It will suffice to say that it was forced 
upon the South as a necessary condition to readmission, and the 
effects of unlimited negro suffrage have ever since been proving its un- 
wisdom. The South has not attempted to deprive this amendment of 
its force, but has quietly robbed it of its sting, by means fully 
within the province of State legislation, as we shall show farther on. 

But the President had acted without giving Congress a voice 
in the momentous decision, and when Congress met it was with a feel- 
ing of enmity to the Executive which quickly undid all that had been 
done. This was the "unhappy mother of unnumbered ills" from 
which the South suffered while the heads of the Government wran- 
gled, and for ten miserable years the seeds of ill feeling between North 
and South were plentifully sown and, like ill weeds, grew- apace. 

It was not until the Johnson and Grant administrations were 
at an end and President Hayes took his seat that these elements of 
discord ceased to exist. Republican though he was, and one who 



Performance and Promise 



573 



had borne his share in the war, Hayes was far-sighted enough to 
perceive, as many at that time were perceiving, that the troubles in 

the Southern States 
would never cease 
while the Govern- 
ment at Washington 
continued to meddle 
with their internal 
affairs, and he was 
just and moderate 
enough to yield to 
his convictions. He 
therefore withdrew 
the troops from the 
South and brought 
to an end the mili- 
tary rule which had 
long prevailed in 
that section, leaving 
the whites and 
blacks to settle their 
difficulties without 
outside aid or inter- 
ference. As a quick 
result, negro rule in 
the legislatures of 
the South came to an 
end and the carpet 
baggers sought new 
climes. This action 
of the President met 
with severe condem- 
nation from the ex- 
tremists of his party, 
but the great mass 
of the people warmly 




Diagram showing the increase in value of Southern 
Manufactured Products, 1890, 1900, 1905. 



approved of it. They were tired of the political strife which had 
continued since the war, and there was a wide-spread feeling in the 
North that the South had been too severely and harshly dealt with. 



574 Performance and Promise 

The year 1876, therefore, may be looked upon as the date at 
which the chief causes of irritation between the South and the North, 
which had continued in one form or another for fully fifty years, 
came to an end, and an opportunity for harmony between the two 
sections arose. Of the old subjects of discord, the tariff alone 
remained, and that had ceased to be of overmastering importance. 
In fact, within twenty years thereafter election contests appeared in 
which the tariff question practically vanished from view, of such 
minor importance had become this question which at one time 
threatened to shake the Union asunder. And what feeling remained 
regarding the tariff had ceased to be sectional. Free trade was no 
longer a supreme demand in any section of the Union, and while the 
parties are still ready to "fight it out on that line," it is widely 
admitted that the tariff needs revision, and the question can never 
again divide great sections or threaten the stability ofthe Union. 

The regeneration ofthe South, in truth, had entered upon a new 
stage, which could not fail to influence public opinion to a great 
degree and introduce a new diversity in political sentiment. About 
the same time that the military government was withdrawn and the 
states were left free to govern themselves, the development of manu- 
factures in the South began to display itself. Within a few years 
afterward the tender infant had developed into a lusty youth, and it 
has since then grown so strongly and sturdily that it is fast approach- 
ing the age of maturity. While largely confined to cotton and iron, 
Southern manufacture is by -no means restricted to these. It is 
branching out in a hundred directions, yearly entering new fields of 
enterprise, and before many years more have elapsed the North will 
find an active and capable rival in the South in most of its staples of 
production. 

This is an honorable and not unwelcome rivalry. It is one far 
more likely to draw together and cement the friendship of the sec- 
tions than to separate them. For with the growing community of 
interests there must arise a stronger fellow-feeling than ever before. 
To return to the question of the tariff, with its partisan influence, it 
may be said that politically the Solid South is beginning to disinte- 
grate. Free trade, or tariff for revenue only, cannot hold absolute 
rule in a land of diversified and advancing manufacturing interests. 
Protection of infant industries must and will be demanded, and with 
the necessity for this is sure to come revolt from party allegiance. 



Performance and Promise 575 

Republicanism in the South no longer depends almost solely on the 
negro vote. It is winning strength in new and more intelligent 
directions and for fresh and potent reasons. To be a Republican 
is a superstition with the negro. It shows signs of becoming a 
business sentiment with many of the manufacturing whites. We 
find to-day, indeed, a growing Democratic vote among the more in- 
telligent of the negro agriculturists, and a growing Republican vote 
among the whites engaged in manufacture, and the old state of 
affairs is showing evident signs of breaking up. 

With these changes in industrial conditions and removal of the 
agencies of discord and enmity, passed away the hostility which had 
once existed between the two great sections of the country, and 
harmony began to take its place. As the war time sank backward 
into the depths of the past and a new generation took the place of the 
host of veterans of the battle field the old enmity became a matter of 
history much more than of existing fact, and an inspiring spirit of 
unity and fellow-feeling rose and spread throughout the land. In 
1898 a new war came in which all the people could unite, and when 
it was over a sense of comradeship had grown up between thou- 
sands in the two sections. An influence greatly adding to this has 
been the active intermovement of the people, with its effect in 
breaking up the old isolation, the multitude of tourists from the 
North who annually seek health, rest or recreation in the South, 
and the community of business interests that has grown with the 
years. Northern capital has borne its part in developing the new 
industries of the South, and this in its turn has helped to cement 
the growing friendship. In fact, there is nothing more surprising 
in the history of this country than the community of interests and 
friendliness of sentiment that existed between South and North at 
the close of the nineteenth century, in view of the fact that half that 
century had been marked by hostile relations, culminating in a war 
of frightful dimensions. 

There are hundreds of evidences of warm fraternisation between 
North and South within the recent period. Of these, one of the 
most striking was the enthusiastic reception accorded to President 
McKinley in 1901, during his vacation journey to the Pacific coast. 
The South turned out en masse to see and greet him, and he was 
received in all the cities and towns passed through with a generous 
enthusiasm which spoke volumes for the unity of sentiment through- 



576 Performance and Promise 

out the country. Kindly feeling Was everywhere uppermost, not a 
trace of the old hostility Was shown, and the reception in New 
Orleans was as enthusiastic and friendly as if the President had 
been a favorite son of the Crescent City and was being welcomed 
home. When President Roosevelt in the following year visited the 
Exposition at Charleston he was received with equal warmth, the 
South taking him to its heart with all its native fervor of feeling. 
We have described this visit elsewhere, and refer to it again only for 
its significance in the present subject of discussion. 

As regards the new conditions which are arising in the South, 
we may fitly quote from the Hon. W. C. P. Breckenridge : 

"As time goes on, and the various industrial developments con- 
tinue, one of the results for which we must look will be the dissolution 
of the South as a compact body. When the danger from the prob- 
lem of the diverse races and from Federal legislation or other exterior 
causes, has passed away; when a new generation arises to whom 
the acts and events of the past thirty years are history only, having 
for them only the same general interest that the deeds of our fathers 
in the Revolution have for us; when the Waterways leading to the 
Gulf and the harbors of the Southern coast are so improved and 
deepened as to furnish easy means of transportation of the prod- 
ucts of the country which they water; and when new and larger 
enterprises are developed on the eastern coast as well as on the 
borders of the Southwestern States, it will be found that the solidar- 
ity of the South will pass away. There is no reason why Louisville 
and Baltimore should stand in a closer relation to Charleston, 
Savannah, and New Orleans, than Cincinnati, St. Louis, or Chicago; 
no cause why Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia should vote 
with Louisiana and Mississippi, rather than with other States. 
The causes now at work, and which will work with accelerated speed 
and force, may put Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri into relations which they do 
not now occupy, and such other States which now seem to be adverse, 
as Kansas and Arkansas, into closer and most intimate relations. 

"These causes will also destroy that peculiar social life which 
was characteristic of many portions of the South before the war. 
The old Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina home 
farm-life will be a thing of the past; the domestic plantation life of 
the farther South will become only a memory. But the Old South 



Performance and Promise 577 

will be the New South, simply devoting itself, under changed condi- 
tions, to new vocations; and will, in these new vocations, find occupa- 
tion for the same qualities which made the former pursuits profitable. 
The same qualities will be necessary in these new pursuits. He 
who formerly was the leading lawyer of a Southern community by 
virtue of his courage, industry, skill, and intelligence, may well be, 
by virtue of the same qualities, the head of the largest industrial 
enterprises; while he who was the chief on the floor of a deliberative 
body, may by virtue of masterhood, become the great banker of his 
community. The modes of life will be altered; but the substance 
and character will remain the same." 

This much is evident all around us, that the South has thrown 
off its old coat and put on a new one, and that in this fresh garb 
much of the old distinction which separated it from its sister 
sections has passed away. Like all the rest of the country, it is 
now a land of diversified industries and occupations. The old wall 
of isolation fell, never to rise again, when the cotton mill, the 
furnace and the forge invaded the South and the bustle of com- 
mercial business began to swirl through its streets; when over its 
rural landscapes, with their bucohc quiet, bustling towns and cities 
rose and spread; when the roar of the railroad train scared the 
nymphs and dryads from its groves, and in a dozen ways the 
unquiet of modern ways robbed it of much of its old rural charm. 

From being merely a customer it has become a rival of and a 
provider for the North. And it no longer contents itself with send- 
ing the raw material of manufacture and the fruits of the earth, but 
it is in the field with wrought and finished wares as well, seeking a 
market at home and abroad in competition with those to whom it 
once looked to supply all its needs beyond the products of the farm. 
As the case now stands, the Southern manufacturer is entering into 
keen rivalry with those who once supplied his wants. With no com- 
petitors. New England was under no disadvantages. With the 
South as a competitor her natural disadvantages count against her 
with full force. The natural advantages are with the South; most 
of the artificial advantages are with New England. Which set of 
forces is most powerful } 

It is an economic truism that natural advantages persist and are 
of progressive force, while artificial advantages diminish and finally 
disappear. The South produces cotton, coal, lumber, iron, and it is 

37 



578 Performance and Promise 

close to the consumer. New England produces neither, and is dis- 
tant from the consumer. As population becomes denser, this funda- 
mental advantage of the South, which can never be lessened, will 
exert continually increasing force. Cheap raw material, cheap 
labor and near-by markets are economic magnets far more powerful 
than any opposing forces, and they are certain sooner or later to 
attract to their support the forces arrayed against them at the outset. 

These opposing forces, spoken of above as artificial advantages, 
are plentiful capital, highly developed skill, varied development, 
capable management. All these New England has in abundance; 
but she cannot prevent their free migration. They are z.l\ the crea- 
tures of opportunity; and if the South offers the opportunity, skill 
and capital will go South and quickly create the varied development. 

In every direction the South is preparing for the future which 
destiny offers it. In addition to the splendid opportunities for 
navigation provided in its rivers, railroads are penetrating it in many 
directions, making their way not only to every city, but almost to 
every village of the land. In the first year of the twentieth century 
the states of the South could boast over 60,000 miles of rail, 
about one-third of the total mileage of the United States. This 
fine showing is being added to with great rapidity. By 1907 it 
had reached more than 70,000 miles, a splendid rate of progress 
which, if it continues, should lift the South to the 100,000 mark 
by the end of another decade. 

Aside from the railroads is the waterway system of the South 
which, if once it be put into proper condition, must work a change that 
cannot be well estimated. The Mississippi River and its tributaries 
furnish the cheapest transportation for the largest number of miles 
through the richest country at present known; but the incapacity to 
control it stands in the way of that stable and certain domination 
which is a prime necessity of prosperous commerce. If the problem 
of its control is once fully solved, and its navigation and that of its 
tributaries made certain and profitable there will be the commence- 
ment of a revolution in the transportation of the products of the 
Mississippi Valley the eff^ect of which on the cities to the lakes and 
the eastern seaboard no one can foretell. During the last thirty 
years, the railroads have been largely built, controlled, and managed 
by those whose interest it was to transport these products to the 
East. The freights, insurance, and commissions for handling them 



Performance and Promise 579 

have built up eastern cities. The natural outlet for these products 
is the Gulf of Mexico. Similar observations, somewhat less im- 
portant and \e£s wide in their scope, can be made concerning the 
result of securmg proper depth of water in the harbors of Mobile, 
Savannah, Charleston, and Galveston, for all of which a great 
commercial future may justly be predicted. 

No one can at present estimate the magnificent results to the 
South of the canal now being built between the Atlantic and the 
Pacific, by way of which, in ten years or less from now, a large part 
of the commerce of the World may be seeking its ports. The com- 
merce of the United States must then make its way southwards in 
vast proportions, on its route to that mighty Pacific which President 
Roosevelt believes is to become the great channel of future commerce. 
When this comes about what will be the record of the Gulf ports of 
the South: of historic Mobile; of New Orleans, the metropolis of the 
Southern Mississippi; of Galveston, which the wild waves in their 
fury have sought in vain to destroy ? Will they not be the Ty^res 
and Alexandrias of a great future to come, the gathering places of a 
commerce grand as any the world has ever known, the culminating 
points of railroads from every section of the land, the harbors to 
deep laden ships from every quarter of the seas, the seat of cities 
teeming with plenty, splendid in opportunities, vast in proportions, 
unsurpassed in ambition and activity ? 

And with these great commercial changes what other trans- 
formation is likely to come upon the beautiful cities of the South ? 
Will not these results change its character ? Will not the quiet 
and pleasant life in a beautiful southern city like Savannah — ^with its 
live oak trees, its wide streets, and its elegant hospitality, the results 
of its beautiful climate and of its being in an eddy in the current 
of the world's commerce — ^pass away, and a new rush and bustle 
supplant its present ease f What effect all this will have in the 
gradual transformation of a solely agricultural people to a com- 
munity where agriculture is equaled by commerce and manufactures 
no one can foresee. But there must still remain the ineradicable 
prepotency of heredity. Those cities must retain enough of their 
present individuality to remain unique. And in this sense "the 
South" will still possess in large measure those peculiarities which 
have always characterized and distinguished it. As the years go 
by the American people will become more and more homogeneous; 



5^® Performance and Promise 

that is, less and less like their European progenitors ana kindred. 
They will become more and more Americans; but each particular 
section will retain its peculiarities; and it is one of the interesting 
studies of the development of free institutions to see how these 
peculiarities are preserved, and how they assist in the development 
of the common country. We will grow to love and trust each other 
the more as we appreciate and better understand the substantial 
unity of the American character and the minute but marked pecu- 
liarities produced by climatic and other causes. 

Shall we look into the future for its promise of progress in other 
directions ? Fifty years ago the South was well content to provide 
the world with the fleecy fibre of the cotton plant, paying with cotton 
in the bale for all its needs, even in a measure for the food it con- 
sumed. To-day the South is clothing its own people with the 
produce of its looms, and sending much of its cotton abroad in the 
shape of finished goods, instead of raw material. And it is not alone 
feeding in great part its millions at home, but is largely supplying the 
North with the fruits of the soil. To those who looked upon the 
South in 1865, at the close of the ruinous Civil War, such a change 
and growth in industry within fifty years would have been pro- 
nounced impossible. Yet the incredible, as often before, has come 
to pass. 

Can we gaze fifty years forward and obtain even a vague glimpse 
of the South as it will appear in the middle of the twentieth century .? 
What vision is such a forward look likely to bring us .? Certainly we 
will gaze upon a land whiter than ever with the snows of the cotton 
field, but a land bearing food products in vast profusion besides. 
Agriculture must go forward instead of backward and the possi- 
bilities of the Southern soil are enormous, and it may be that we 
shall see all the yield of the cotton fields poured into factories near 
at hand, only the finished goods being sent abroad. In that coming 
time New England will have transferred its cotton mills to Southern 
fields, and Europe will need to seek cotton for its factories in other 
lands. 

And in that not remote period the mines of the South will 
doubtless yield iron and coal in an abundance not dreamed of to-day, 
while rolling mills and iron manufacturing plants of every kind will 
come into intense rivalry with Pennsylvania and the other iron states 
of the North. This rivalry already exists, but we may look for it to 



Performance and Promise 581 

grow and spread until Alabama and its neighboring states become 
the veritable home of Tubal Cain. We may look, indeed, in the 
coming South for manufacturing industries of the most diverse kind, 
supplying markets near and afar which are hardly dreamed of 
to-day. 

And with these developments in agriculture, mining and manu- 
facture, may we not safely look for a commerce of stupendous pro- 
portions, supplying the thriving nations to the south of our land 
and crossing the Pacific to Oriental realms ? In those brisk days 
who will again speak of the South as a land of sleeping plantations 
and drowsy towns ? It has already become a land of alert and 
thriving cities, and those in the days to coms must grow amazingly, 
many of them expanding into metropolitan dimensions and develop- 
ing into centers of the most diversified and active trade. 

And in the coming days the questions which still disturb us in 
a measure will have become traditions of the past. The tariff 
problem v;'ill doubtless be solved in a manner satisfactory to the 
labor and capital of the land. The trouble about negro suffrage 
must pass away, as time removes the one partial exception now 
existing to equal rights in the ballot, and the general development 
of education leaves but an insignificant few, white or black, destitute 
of the voting privilege. And the question of labor it is to be hoped 
will be solved by a general extension of the principle of industrial 
education, training the negro alike on farm and in factory, to work 
with an intelligent appreciation of the duties given him to perform. 

In those days there will be no North, no South, no East, no 
West, except as geographical expressions, but all will be cemented 
into one great country, harmonious and friendly, with no traces of 
hostility between section and section, and no questions, political 
or other, that do not apply to all sections alike. Rivalries there will 
be, strong ones no doubt, for the advantages of trade and produc- 
tion, but such rivalries will simply serve to rouse all the land to its 
utmost energy and we may safely look forward to a day when the 
nation will be in every respect a unit, and the Union without a line 
of separation between its constituent parts, 



CHAPTER XXXII 

GRAND EXPOSITION OF INDUSTRY 
IN THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH 

Origin of World's Fairs — Southern progress first shown at the Centennial Exposition— 
The International Cotton Exposition of 1881 — Louisville and the Southern 
Exposition — The Cotton Centenary Exposition at New Orleans — Great size 
of main buildings, and grandeur of the display — Atlanta again in the field — Great 
beauty of the Cotton States' exposition — The Tennessee Centennial — The 
Charleston Exposition and its attractions — President Roosevelt's visit and his 
remarks — Louisiana Purchase Exposition — The Site at St. Louis — Variety and 
extent of buildings — Opening ceremonies — Scope of exhibits — ^The pike and its 
attractions. 



THE World's Fair is distinctively an outgrowth of the expanding 
ideas of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the earliest 
of them all having been launched at London in 1851. 
Local fairs had been common in European cities for centuries, but 
the idea of a fair of national scope we owe to the Marquis d'Aveze, 
who made an exhibit of Sevres porcelain. Gobelin tapestry and other 
articles of French production at Paris in 1798. The idea appealed 
to Napoleon, who in the same year organized a national exhibition 
of industries, in a "Temple of Industry" erected in the Champ 
de Mars, at Paris. It was a small affair, open three days 
only, but the idea, once inaugurated, expanded rapidly. Several 
such fairs were held in France during Napoleon's time, and after 
1820 they spread to other countries of Europe, and also to the 
United States, where national exhibitions were held at New York 
and Washington. Such fairs were held in Paris about every five years 
till 1849, '^^ which year the space occupied was 240,000 square feet, 
the length of time 56 days, and the number of exhibitors 4,494. 

During this time England had held many civic fairs, but no 
national one, the first really national exhibition being projected by 
Prince Albert for 1851. But in his hands the scheme expanded 

582 



Expositions of Industry 5^3 

until it was decided to give this exhibition an international character, 
and the pioneer "World's Fair" appeared, held in the renowned 
Crystal Palace, a grand temple of glass 1848 feet long by 408 wide, 
filled with a splendid display of the products of the civilized world. 
Two years afterward New York followed with the second Inter- 
national Fair. This was on a rnuch smaller scale than that of 
London, the American ambition to excel being then in its infancy, 
while the lack of interest in American affairs was shown in the 
narrow array of exhibits sent from foreign countries. But the work 
of American hands was amply shown, this being the first large 
display of the products of industry in the great Western Republic. 

The World's Fair being thus launched, the final half of the 
nineteenth century was replete with expositions of art and industry 
on a grand scale, Paris, London, and Vienna being their chief seats 
abroad, while Philadelphia in 1876 and Chicago in 1893 came into 
active competition on our own soil. It was apparently the grand 
Centennial World's Fair at Philadelphia that gave inspiration to the 
South to embark in this splendid method of showing the true great- 
ness of a nation to the world. From the date of the earliest Ameri- 
can Fair of national scope, that of New York in 1853, until the 
renaissance of its industries a quarter of a century later, the South 
had been in no position and no temper to indulge in industrial shows. 
During all these years its hands were tied; first by a great political 
contest, then by a war of revolutionary proportions, then by an 
industrial depression from which it took many years to recover. 
At the date of the Centennial Exposition of 1876 the South first 
showed signs of rising above the ashes of its desolation, and making 
the results of its energy and industry felt and seen. Its ruined fields 
were once again whitening widely to the harvest, the sound of the 
hammer had begun to ring loudly in its newly created iron works, 
the whirr of wheels in its cotton mills was giving a new music to the 
air, and the pioneer results of its growing enterprise were seen 
among the multitudinous exhibits at the Philadelphia World's Fair. 

Five years passed on, and then the South, feeling the inspiration 
of the industry and enterprise which had permeated its every vein, 
resolved to show the world on its own soil of what it was 
capable, and what it had accomplished in fifteen years after the 
close of one of the most desolating wars to which any modem nation 
had ever been subjected. Atlanta, the paragon city of Georgia, and 



584 



Expositions of Industry- 



one of the most vitally active centers of enterprise and activity in 
the New South, was chosen as the site of a pioneer exhibition of the 
products of the Southern States and of the results of the energy and 
intelligence of the people of that great section of the country. 

This movement gave rise to the "International Cotton Exposi- 
tion," held in Oglethorpe Park, a fine public ground, forty to fifty 




A PLANING MILL IN GEORGIA 
It takes the rough boards from the saw-miil and makes finished products of them. 

acres in area, of the city of Atlanta. The year of this interesting 
event was i88l. The dates of opening and closing were October 
5 and December 31. The display was one of which the South, in the 
condition of its industries at that time, had abundant reason to be 
proud. The people of Atlanta were thoroughly wide awake, full 
of business energy, full of pride in their growing city and their 



Expositions of Industry 585 

splendid country, and took as their motto the sentiment "there is 
no such word as fail. " 

In the words of H. G. Kimball, Director General of the Exposi- 
tion, "The grand central idea of the Exposition, the main shaft to 
which is belted every wheel that has worked for its success, is im- 
provement — the improvement of the South in all its lines of industry — 
together with the fraternal and patriotic spirit that is becoming to a 
people of a common heritage and a common destiny." 

The "International" portion of the title proved too ambitious. 
No foreign exhibits of any importance were shown. But the dis- 
play of Southern products was highly interesting and inspiring, 
this being by no means confined to cotton, but embracing all fields of 
Southern industry, from the growth of the field to the finished prod- 
uct of the workshop. The Exposition embraced nine Depart- 
ments with various sub-divisions, the Main Building being of heavy 
timber and built in the shape of a cross with arms 7 lo feet long and 
400 feet wide. Chief among the other buildings were an Art and 
Industry Hall and an Agricultural Hall. The exhibitors were over 
1800 in number, and 286,095 visitors entered the handsomely deco- 
rated edifices. As a pioneer display of the results of the industry of 
the South this Exposition was a marked success. It opened the 
eyes of the people, and especially of the Southern people, to the 
promise and potency of the enterprise of that great section more fully 
than years of quiet endeavor could have done. The South then first 
saw clearly where it stood, what it had accomplished, and of what 
it was capable, and from that period it entered upon the great and 
difficult work before it with a new heart. As for Atlanta itself, it 
was inspired by its success, and sprang forward with the determina- 
tion to take its place among the progressive cities of the country. 

Two years later, in 1883, Louisvilb, the metropolis of Kentucky, 
wheeled into line in the Exposition field. Its display, lasting one 
hundred days from August i, had its purpose clearly indicated in its 
title of "Southern Exposition." It was, however, on a more modest 
scale, and with less ambitious ideas, than had been shown in its 
predecessor, the whole exhibition being under one roof, though this 
was an extensive one, covering thirteen acres of area. It was thus 
more than two-thirds the size of the great Main Building of the 
Philadelphia Exposition. The Louisville display was prominent 
for its exhibitions of cotton in every stage of its growth and manu- 



586 Expositions of Industry 

facture, though every phase and article of Southern industry was 
shown. It was open lOO days, attracted more than 1,500 exhibitors, 
and there were more than 770,000 admissions to its exhibit, it thus 
largely exceeding Atlanta in the number of visitors. 

The success of these quickly succeeding displays proved an 
inspiration to the South, and the purpose rapidly arose of supple- 
menting them by an Exposition on a far grander scale, a real 
"World's Fair," the third on American soil— the second in reality, 
for the early and hasty effort in New York, with its total floor area 
of less than five acres, was a pigmy which Atlanta and Louisville 
had already gone far beyond, and its international exhibit was on a 
verv small scale. The ambitious design here indicated had its 
birth in the great city of the far South, New Orleans, the famed 
metropolis of the lower Mississippi. The idea of this Exposition 
originated in October, 1882, in the National Cotton Planters' Asso- 
ciation. Its proposed object was to celebrate the Centennial of the 
cotton industry in this country. The first record of American 
commerce in cotton had been made in 1784, when six bags — about 
one bale — of cotton were shipped from Charleston, South Carolina, 
to England. To celebrate the centenary of this important event 
by a great exhibition of the growth of the cotton industry, in New- 
Orleans, the greatest of cotton marts, was a worthy ambition, and 
one which quickly grew to the dimensions of a World's Fair, with 
the cotton exhibit as its central feature. 

The projectors of this enterprise succeeded in raising a fund 
of over ^600,000, the city donated ^100,000 for a permanent Horti- 
cultural Hall, and Congress made a loan of ^1,000,000 in aid of the 
Fair. With this financial support work was actively begun, the 
site selected being a tract of 245 acres, known as the Upper City 
Park, and fronting on the Mississippi River several miles above the 
built-up portion of the city. Near the center of this was erected a 
Main Building of enormous dimensions, far surpassing in size any 
structure hitherto devoted to exhibition purposes. Its length was 
1,378 feet, its width 905, and the space covered was the immense area 
of thirty-three acres, thirteen more than that of the Main Building 
at the Centennial Exposition of 1876. It was built of wood, con- 
sisting of a series of trussed sections, divided from each other only 
by rows of tall pillars, so that they practically constituted a single 
building, whose roof was largely of glass. In its center was con- 




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Expositions of Industry 5^7 

structed a Music Hall "capable of holding ii,ooo persons. This was 
marked off by rows of pillars and surrounded by broad and lofty 
galleries. 

Next in size was the Government Building, intended to contain 
the exhibits of the departments of the Government and of the 
several states. Its dimensions were 885 by 565 feet, and the display 
within its walls was very large and attractive. A special exhibit 
of woman's work was provided for in this building, under the charge 
of Julia Ward Howe, of Boston. Many other structures were 
erected, chief among them being the permanent Horticultural Hall, 
built of iron and glass, 600 by 100 feet in size, with a transept of 
194 feet, and an Art Building of 250 by 100 feet. An interesting 
feature of the grounds was a garden of semi-tropical plants, com- 
prising groves of oranges, lemons, bananas, etc., while the flowery 
wealth of the South was profusely in evidence. 

This exhibition laid out on this grand scale was known as 
"The World's Industrial and Cotton Centenary Exposition." Its 
opening took place on December 16, 1884, the President starting the 
machine in motion by touching an electric button at Washington. 
It remained open until May i, 1885, the exhibits being arranged 
in twelve divisions, respectively: Agriculture; Horticulture; Pisci- 
culture; Ores and Minerals; Raw and Manufactured Products; 
Furniture and its accessories; Textile Fabrics, Clothing, and their 
accessories; Industrial Arts; Alimentary Products; Education and 
Instruction; Works of Art; and Natural History. An important 
exhibit was that of the "Liberty Bell," which was taken for the first 
time from its hallowed precincts in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, 
and sent to be seen by the patriotic South. It may be said that no 
feature of the display attracted more visitors or elicited more earnest 
attention. The international feature of this display proved to be 
on a small scale and lacked interest, European countries sending 
very few exhibits. This was doubtless due to the fact that the 
South had not as yet succeeded in impressing foreign countries with 
its importance as a center of mechanical industry and commercial 
activity, as it was destined to do before many more years should pass. 
But the indifference of Europe was retrieved in a measure by the 
intelligent interest taken by Mexico, which occupied a floor area of 
160,000 square feet and made a magnificent display of its products, 
the finest it had ever shown. The departments of the United 



588 



Expositions of Industry 



States Government vied with each other in offering a handsome 
and illustrative exhibit and in this they were emulated by a number 
of the states. As regards the South, it excelled itself in the beauty 
and variety of its exhibits, cotton in its every phase, from the grow- 
ing plant and bursting bulb in the field to the finished product of the 
mill, constituting the leading feature of the display, but to these 
Were added fine examples of all the products of the South, alike of the 
field, the mine, and the mill. 

Ten years passed before the South deemed it advisable to make 
another such manifestation of its progress. During these years it 




THE THREE PRINCIPAL FOREST SECTIONS OF THE SOUTH 

had been moving forward on "seven league boots," developing its 
manufacturing enterprises with wonderful activity, and rapidly 
expanding in all the features requisite to national greatness. Of 
all its cities none had shown more enterprise and rapidity of develop- 
ment than Atlanta, the thoroughly wide-awake capital of Georgia 
and the leading railroad center of the South. This city had grown 
to be a flourishing center of production and trade, and possessed 
a number of large cotton mills and furniture factories, over twenty- 
five foundries, machine shops and agricultural implement works, 
and a considerable number of cotton-seed oil mills, and fertilizer, 
glass and ice factories. The city itself was large and handsome, and 



Expositions of Industry 589 

around it were populous suburbs, where market gardening was 
actively pursued. Such was the 1895 status of the city which had 
followed the Centennial Exposition of 1876 with the first general 
display of Southern products, and which followed the Columbian 
Exposition of 1893 with a display on a scale far exceeding its original 
attempt. 

The South had not been adequately represented, in its wonder- 
ful agricultural, mining and manufacturing progress and resources, 
at the Chicago Exposition, and soon after the close of the latter 
certain enterprising Southerners decided on making a complete 
display of the work the South was doing. Atlanta was the center 
of this movement, and that city was selected as the site of the " Cotton 
States and International Exposition, " as the new project was entitled. 
The locality chosen was the large and handsome Piedmont Park, 
two miles from the city's center, whose 189 acres of area were ad- 
mirably adapted by nature for picturesque scenic effects. This 
Park is bordered by elevated ground, which slopes down to a low 
level in its center, thus forming a natural cup, and affording an 
excellent opportunity for the construction of a large artificial lake 
of some thirteen acres' area. This was named "Clara Meer," and 
its borders were adorned with a beautiful garden of the choicest 
blooms of the South. The buildings rose on the surrounding ele- 
vated ground, nearly all of them fronting on the lake, and were so 
artistically grouped that all the structures were visible at one glance, 
while from every point of view the lake and its garden could be seen. 
The whole effect was admirable as a work of architectural and 
landscape art. 

The color scheme of the main buildings v/as attractive, being 
a grey tint, with white trimmings and moss-green roofs, the Fine 
Arts buildings alone being pure white. 

September 15, 1895, was chosen as the date of opening of the 
Fair, it continuing open until December 31. President Cleveland, 
from his country home at Gray Gables, Massachusetts, opened the 
Fair by pressing an electric button. The edifices, which were of 
striking and effective architecture, included structures with the 
following titles; Manufactures and Liberal Arts; Machinery; 
Mining; Transportation; Horticulture; Electricity; Fine Arts; 
Mirerals and Forestry; Government; Woman's; Negro; Tobacco; 
Administration; and various smaller buildings. An edifice devoted 



590 Expositions of Industry 

to Negro Industries was a new idea and proved a very interesting 
one, it containing an important and somewhat surprising exhibit 
of the productions of the colored people of the South. As the leading 
representative of his race in its industrial development, Booker T. 
Washington, the principal of Tuskegee Institute, was selected to take 
part in the opening ceremonies and made an admirably effective 
speech, stating clearly the true relations which he considered should 
exist between the two races of the South, and the lines upon which 
alone the people of his race could hope to make any permanent 
progress. This address we have elsewhere given. Exhibits were 
made by most of the Northern states, by Mexico and the other 
American republics, and by a number of the countries of Europe, 
whose masters of industry Were beginning to awaken to the impor- 
tance of the South as a field of business enterprise. The United 
States Government exhibit, while not nearly so costly as that 
at Chicago, exceeded it in value. One attractive feature, the Mid- 
way Plaisance, was borrowed from the Chicago Exposition, and 
proved a happily devised addition to the display, and the Liberty 
Bell, which had excited such patriotic enthusiasm at New Orleans, 
was equally effective here. The Exposition was in every respect 
successful and was largely attended, on several days of special 
import more than 100,000 people being present. President Cleve- 
land was among its guests, his presence drawing together a multi- 
tude of visitors. 

In 1896 the State of Tennessee reached the hundredth anniver- 
sary of its admission into the Union, an event which it was deemed 
advisable to celebrate in an effective manner. An idea of this kind 
had been entertained as early as 1881, so far as concerned the city 
of Nashville, which then reached its hundredth year. It then rested 
until 1892, when the suggestion to hold an Exposition of the re- 
sources and progress of the state was broached. Preparations soon 
after began, chiefly by citizens of Nashville, who eventually bore 
nearly the whole cost of the enterprise, little aid being obtained from 
Congress and the State Legislature, though the railroad lines made 
useful contributions. The inaugural ceremonies were held on 
June I, 1896, but it become necessary to defer the opening to the 
Exposition to May i, 1897. It continued open till November i. 
The site of the Exposition was West Side Park, a beautiful tract of 
about 200 acres near the city. This locality was well covered with 



Expositions of Industry 59 1 

fine old trees, and contained a number of streams and small lakes 
which were utilized for landscape effects. 

"The Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition,'* as it 
was named, was effectively provided for, the main buildin2;s being 
arranged in the form of an ellipse. The Fine Arts Building, which 
was a reproduction of the famous Parthenon at Athens, was built 
on an elevation in the center of the ellipse, whose southern end was 
occupied by the Auditorium and the northern by the Education and 
Hygiene Building. The other main buildings completed the ellipse, 
including structures for the display of Commerce, Transportation, 
Agriculture, Minerals and Forestry and Woman's Work. Some of 
these were quite extensive, the Commerce Buildings, for instance, 
measuring 560 by 315 feet. The grounds were a scene of flowery 
wealth, more than 1,000,000 flowering plants being set out. Among 
the buildings of special design was that of Memphis, which represen- 
ted the pyramid of Cheops, and the Texas Building, which was a 
copy of the Alamo. The Woman's Building was an elaboration of 
the "Hermitage," President Jackson's famous residence near 
Nashville. The buildings were all pure white in color, reproducing 
on a smaller scale the beautiful effect of the Chicago Exposition. 
Half the states of the Union had special days allotted them, and in 
June, President McKinley and his Cabinet visited the affair. A 
feature of the occasion was the organization of a "Centennial City," 
with Mayor and other officils, for the government of the Exposition. 
The exhibits were numerous, the art display being especially fine, 
while the resources of Tennessee were amply shown. Among the 
special features were cotton and tobacco fields in full growth. 

The Pan-American Exposition of 1901 at Buffalo was quickly 
followed by a similar event at Charleston, the gates of the latter 
opening one month after those of the former were closed. The 
former was intended to cover all the nations of the two Americas, 
while the latter, under its more modest title of "The South Carolina 
Interstate and West Indian Exposition," was far less ambitious in 
its purpose, which was in especial to demonstrate the wonderful 
development of the South during the last quarter of the nineteenth 
century and to show its magnificent possibilities. The proximity 
of the West Indies induced the projectors to include them in their 
scope and welcome was extended to exhibits from Central and 
South America. This was a large expansion of the original idea, 



592 Expositions of Industry 

which had been confined to South Carolina alone. Charleston, the 
city of the Exposition, is of much interest in itself as a choice type of 
the old Southern city, with its historic features and its many quaint 
and picturesque bits of distinctively Southern architecture. Efforts 
were made to emphasize these, and to make the most of the 185 
acres set aside for the Exposition, with their liberal adornment by 
fine old forest trees and their opportunities for landscape effects. 
The grounds extended 2,000 feet along the Ashley River, giving them 
the picturesque advantage of a large water frontage. 

The color scheme chosen for the Exposition buildings was 
"old ivory," one very suitable for the sunny skies of our Southern 
coast. The central feature of the architectural plan was the South- 
ern garden, a magnificent display of the horticultural charms of the 
South, around which, in horseshoe shape, was built a regal " Court of 
Palaces." This was composed of three large and beautiful build- 
ings, the Palaces of Cotton, of Commerce, and of Agriculture, pos- 
sessing in all a floor space of 136,000 square feet. The center of the 
horseshoe was formed by the Cotton Palace, 160 feet in height of 
dome and with a facade 360 feet in length. In this was given the 
most complete and attractive display ever made of the cotton indus- 
try, in just recognition of the position of South Carolina as the first 
cotton manufacturing State in the South and the second in the 
Union. The Palaces of Commerce and Agriculture had each 
about 40,000 square feet of floor space, and were very handsome in 
their architectural effect. The Mineral and Forestry building, 
circular in form, with flanking towers, and of over 20,000 square feet 
in area, was unique in character, its massive walls giving it the 
aspect of great strength, while it was handsomely ornamented. 
There was a beautiful auditorium, with seats for 3,500 people. The 
other large edifices were the Administration, Art, Transportation, 
Machinery, Fishery, Woman's and Negroes' Buildings. For the 
Woman's Building a colonial plantation residence was deftly utilized. 
The architectural style of the buildings was that of the Spanish 
Renaissance, and no previous Exposition had surpassed them for 
beauty and general charm, which was greatly added to by the sur- 
rounding groves and gardens and the placid flow of the Ashley River. 

The Exposition — opened December i, 1901, and closed May 
30, 1902 — presented an exhaustive display of the material resources 
and industrial achievements of the Southern States, to which were 



Expositions of Industry 



593 



added exhibits of value and interest from the whole country, and 
from Cuba, Porto Rico, and others of the West India Islands, as 
also from the Central American States. Some twenty of the states 
and cities of the Union were represented by special buildings, or 
exhibits, notable among the buildings being those of Philadelphia, 




THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Twenty-sixth President of the United States, whose mother was a Georgia woman 
and who proved himself to be one of the best friends of the South. 

Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Maryland, Cincinnati, and the 
St. Louis Exposition Company. As at New Orleans, Chicago, and 
Atlanta, the Philadelphia Building showed as its leading point of 
interest the famous old Liberty Bell. The Fine Arts display was one 
of the best ever made in the United States, while a large number of 
38 



594 Expositions of Industry 

statues adorned buildings and grounds, and fountains of original 
design were much in evidence. The popular Midway Plaisance 
feature had twenty-two acres devoted to its attractions. 

As in the case of all Expositions since that of 1876, the Presi- 
dent set the machinery in motion by touching an electric button. 
This service was rendered by President Roosevelt from the White 
House at Washington on Monday, December 2d, the official oration 
having previously been delivered by Senator Chauncey M. Depew, 
of New York. One of the events of the Exposition was the visit of 
President Roosevelt and the enthusiastic welcome which he received. 
Reaching Charleston on April 8, 1902, his first day there was sig- 
nalized by a trip round the harbor and a visit to Fort Sumter, 
during which the guns of Forts Jasper and Moultrie roared in salutes 
as vehement as though they were again bombarding their sister fort. 
In the evening a banquet was given in the President's honor, at 
which President Roosevelt, Mayor Smyth and Governor McSweeney 
were the orators. From the President's remarks, the following 
just words of appreciation may be fitly quoted : 

"South Carolina seems during the last two decades to have 
definitely entered upon a steady progress in things material, as well 
as in other things. I was much struck in looking over some of the 
figures of the census, quite recently published, to see the astonishing 
progress that has been made in your State. I was prepared to see 
that the values of your farm products had risen as they have, a little 
over twenty-five per cent. I was prepared to see that your farms 
themselves had increased in a still larger proportion; that the value 
of your lands and buildings had grown up; but I did not realize the 
way in which your manufacturing enterprises had increased, as 
shown in the fact that your manufacturing products had gone up 
over 130 per cent; that, for instance, the number of spindles has 
about quadrupled, from less than half a million to more than two 
million in the State. I did not realize that tlie wages paid out had 
increased seventy-five per cent. Gentlemen, you talk of the pro- 
gress of the far West, but I think South Carolina can give points to 
some of the States." 

The following day, April 9th, was selected as President's Day 
at the Exposition, and never had a ruler of the nation been received 
with more ardent and spontaneous enthusiasm. The feature of the 
event was the presentation of a sword to Major Jenkins, the only 



Expositions of Industry S9S 

Rough Rider whom South Carolina had contributed to Roosevelt's 
old corps, in addition to his genial greeting of and presentation of 
the sword to his old friend and soldier comrade, the President made 
an effective address, from which we quote the following timely 
passage: 

"It is to me a peculiar privilege to speak here in your beautiful 
city. My mother's people were from Georgia; but before they went 
to Georgia, before the Revolution, in the days of Colonial rule, they 
dwelt for nearly a century in South Carolina; and, therefore, I can 
claim your State as mine by inheritance no less than by the stronger 
and nobler right which makes each foot of American soil in a sense 
the property of all Americans. 

"Charleston is not only a typical Southern city; it is also a city 
whose history teems with events which link themselves to American 
history as a whole. In the early Colonial days, Charleston was the 
outpost of our people against the Spaniard in the South. In the 
days of the Revolution there occurred here some of the events which 
vitally affected the outcome of the struggle for independence, and 
which impressed themselves most deeply upon the popular mind. 
It was here that the tremendous, terrible drama of the Civil War 
opened. 

"With delicate and thoughtful courtesy you originally asked 
me to come to this Exposition on the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. 
The invitation not only showed a fine generosity and manliness in 
you, my hosts, but it also emphasized as hardly anything else could 
have emphasized how completely we are now a united people. The 
wounds left by the great Civil War, incomparably the greatest war 
of modern times, have healed; and its memories are now priceless 
heritages of honor, alike to the North and to the South. The devo- 
tion, the self-sacrifice, the steadfast resolution and lofty darirg, the 
high devotion to the right as each man saw it, whether Northerner 
or Southerner— all these qualities of the men and women of the early 
6o's now shine luminous and brilliant before our eyes, while the mists 
of anger and hatred that once dimmed them have passed away 
forever. 

"All of us. North and South, can glory alike in the valor of the 
men who wore the blue and of the men who wore the gray. Those 
were iron times, and only iron men could fight to its terrible finish 
the giant struggle between the hosts of Grant and Lee. To US of 



59^ Expositions of Industry 

the present day, and to our children and children's children, the 
valiant deeds, the high endeavor and abnegation of self shown in 
that struggle by those who took part therein will remain forevermore 
to naark the level to which we in our turn must rise whenever the 
hour of the nation's need may come." 

The celebration of the centennial anniversary of the acquisition 
of the vast Louisiana territory, a domain large enough for an empire, 
the population of which had grown from barely 50,000 in 1803 to 
more than 15,000,000 in 1903, and the value from ^15,000,000 to 
over ^6,500,000,000, was certainly well worthy of a supreme effort 
on the part of its inhabitants and those of the whole Union, and no 
more impressive and notable method of celebration offered itself than 
that of a great International Fair, which would bring exhibits and 
visitors from all the world and show the nations of the earth what 
America had done in the field of progress in a century of growth. 
So far as the South was concerned, it gained in the project of the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition a choice opportunity for an inter- 
national exhibition on an unsurpassed scale. 

Never before had a World's Fair possessed so magnificent a site. 
Of the great American International Expositions, the Centennial 
at Philadelphia had occupied only 236 acres and the Columbian 
at Chicago 633 acres, while that at St. Louis had nearly six times the 
area of the first and twice the area of the second, the site chosen, 
the western section of Forest Park and the grounds of the Washing- 
ton University, embracing 1,240 acres. Similarly, while the main 
exhibition buildings at Chicago covered eighty-two, those at St. 
Louis covered 128 acres. As respects location, no better could 
have been chosen than St. Louis. It is not only one of the great- 
est and most beautiful cities in the Union, but it stands almost 
in the geographical center of the United States and also not far from 
its center of population. There is no richer or finer country in the 
world than that surrounding it or one whose people have made a 
more prosperous record. While it may claim to be the metropolis 
of the Middle West, it also occupies a metropolitan standing as the 
largest city in that section of the Union distinctively known as the 
South, of which Missouri was made the northwest state bv the 
terms of the Missouri Compromise. 

No sooner was it decided to hold a grand exposition of the 
world's industries in this favorable location than active preparations 



Expositions of Industry 



597 



to carry out the ambitious project began, the enterprising people of 
the old Louisiana province determining to make this the greatest fair 
the world had ever seen. Chicago had won this position in 1893 by 




PALACE OF VARIED INDUSTRIES IN LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPO- 
SITION, HELD AT ST. LOUIS, 1904 

This was a magnificent structure, which presented a facade of 1,200 feet on the north and 
south, and 525 feet on the east and west, giving 656,250 square feet of exhibition 
space on the ground floor. The low dome was flanked by towers about 200 
feet high, used for electrical display and illumination. 

its "great white city," but the people of St. Louis proposed to en- 
deavor to surpass it as much as it had surpassed all previous efforts. 
The site chosen, the clearing of the ground began in August, 1901, 



59^ Expositions of Industry 

and on December 20, the first shovelful of earth for the Inauguration 
of the vast enterprise was lifted by its President, David R. Francis. 

Money v^as needed, money in great sums, and the citizens of 
St. Louis came nobly to the rescue by subscribing ^5,000,000, while 
the city itself raised an equal sum by the issue of bonds. The United 
States Government appropriated a like amount, so that the workers 
had the great fund of ^15,000,000 for the huge task that confronted 
them. ^5,000,000 was afterward borrowed from the Government, 
and all this was only the nucleus of the cost of the Fair. The Scates 
and Territories appropriated large sums that they might be adequate- 
ly represented, while foreign governments made similar preparations 
at a great cost. The total sum expended by the Exposition Com- 
pany amounted to ^22,000,000; by the states, ^9,000,000; by foreign 
governments, /$8, 500,000; by concessionaries, ^5,000,000; add 
to this the cash spent by exhibitors, and the complete cost would 
easily foot up over $50,000,000, an unrivaled sum for such a 
purpose. 

Actively went the officials to work, and when their labors were 
completed, they had erected thirteen buildings of huge dimensions, 
while a host of minor ones spread over the ground, many of the latter 
of large dimensions and attractive architecture erected for the dis- 
plays of states and foreign countries. The thirteen included the 
buildings of the United States Government, Education, Art, Liberal 
Arts, Manufactures, Varied Industries, Textiles, Machinery, Elec- 
tricity, Transportation, Agriculture, Horticulture, and Forests and 
Fisheries. Largest among them "was the Agricultural building, 
covering a space of 600 by 1,600 feet or about twenty-two acres. 
This superiority in dimensions was in consonance with the unsur- 
passed development of agriculture in the Louisiana Purchase area. 
The next in size were those of Manufactures and of Varied In- 
dustries, each 525 by 1,200 feet, or nearly fifteen acres in extent. 
These buildings were so planned as to give the most attractive effect. 
Eight of them were grouped in the northeast section of the site upon 
a nearly level piece of ground, four on each side of a broad central 
avenue. On the hill to the southwest stood a highly ornate Festival 
Hall, the palaces of Art rising farther south on the same hill, while 
the splendid United States Government Building occupied an effec- 
tive position on a hill southwest of the central group, and various 
other buildings rose on high ground to the westward. The arrange- 



Expositions of Industry 599 

ment was fan-shaped, the Art group being at the apex and the 
avenues forming the ribs. 

As close attention was given to landscape as to architectural 
effect. The avenues were of splendid dimensions, varying from 
300 to 600 feet in width, and were abundantly enriched with 
flowers, shrubs, and groups of sculpture, the latter adorning the 
entrances to buildings, gateways, bridges, balconies, gardens, and 
fountains. One of the most picturesque features was the imposing 
waterfall, or miniature cataract, which poured in three cascades 
down a natural amphitheatre between the Art and other buildings, 
and discharged its water into a grand basin at the foot- The latter 
was part of a lagoon system, more than a mile in extent, encircling 
the Electricity and Textile buildings. Highest of all in location was 
the Festival Hall, covering two acres of ground and affording a 
broad outlook over the central group of palatial buildings, which at 
night, when lit up with the extraordinary electrical display, presented 
the aspect of a magical city of light and splendor. The electrical 
current provided exceeded 20,000 horse-power, being the greatest 
ever employed in any single human enterprise. 

The vast amount of work to be done in preparing for this Exposi- 
tion, in which not only all the States of the Union, but all the im- 
portant countries of the world, took an active part, and in which 
every previous Exposition was surpassed in diversity, richness and 
grandeur, prevented the completion of the edifices by the anniversary 
date of 1903, and it became necessary to defer the opening to the 
spring of 1904; but it was sufficiently advanced for the dedication to 
take place on May 30, 1903, the grand enterprise being then officially 
presented to the world with appropriate ceremonies. 

The opening of the Fair itself was delayed by the vastness of the 
preparations to the ist of May, 1904. That day dawned clear, 
warm, and beautiful, and a great throng gathered early in the 
grounds. The ceremonies began with a procession from the 
Administration Building to the great plaza on which rose the lofty 
monument commemorating the purchase of Louisiana. Here 
stood the effective group of statuary representing the Apotheosis of 
St. Louis, the great white statue of the famous French monarch 
doing duty as the emblem of the city which bore his name. 

The head of the procession was taken by the Jefferson Guards, 
a company of young college men dressed in khaki uniform, who 



6oo Expositions of Industry 

were to act as the policemen of the Exposition. After them came 
the official staff of the Fair, from President Francis and the Board 
of Directors down to the humblest clerk. The commissioners 
representing foreign countries completed the procession, which was 
met on the plaza by Secretary of War, William Taft, vicegerent 
of President Roosevelt and the representatives of the States and 
Territories. The remainder of the plaza was crowded by the great 
throng gathered to witness the ceremonies. 

These began with a prayer, followed by an address by Presi- 
dent Francis, describing the purpose of the Exposition and ending 
with the words: "Open ye gates, spring wide ye portals, enter here 
ye sons of men and behold the achievements of your race. Learn 
the lesson here and gather inspiration for future accomplishments." 
The music of the occasion was a march called "Louisiana" and a 
poem, "The Hymn of the West," set to music and sung by a chorus 
of 500 voices. Then the Mayor of the city welcomed the visitors. 
Secretary Taft replied as the representative of President Roosevelt, 
and, the clock having struck one, everybody was on the tip-top of 
expectancy, for the moment of opening the great Fair had arrived. 

Telegraph messages flashed between St. Louis and Washington, 
then the President of the United States pressed a button in the capi- 
tal city, and in an instant the machinery began to move, the flags 
unfurled and floated out on the breeze, and the three great waterfalls 
poured their foaming floods into the basin below. The grand 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition was open. Cheers rose from every 
lip and the whole mighty throng broke out with the song of the Star- 
spangled Banner, America's favorite national hymn. Immediately 
afterward the immense throng broke up into its elements and spread 
through the buildings, eager to see the entertainment provided for 
the American people. 

Thus passed the opening day. At length the shades of night 
descended on the scene. It was a night long to be remembered. 
As the day had been made memorable by impressive ceremonies, 
the night was reserved for a display of brilliancy and beauty such as 
the World had never before gazed upon. Waiting until nearly eight 
o'clock, when the gloom of night had fully succeeded the glare of 
day, steps were taken for the splendid illumination that was to mark 
every night of the Fair. 

First of all there blazed out a single row of incandescent clusters 



Expositions of Industry 6oi 

outlining the great colonnade flanking Festival Hall on the hill. 
Then with one mighty burst all the great buildings sprang into 
radiant glory. The lights crept like rows of glow-worms under the 
long cornices, down the dark walls and around the columns. Steadily 
the brilliancy grew. Arches stood forth In lucid outline, buildings 
were marked out in yellow fire; towers and spires became waves of 
flame against a dark purple heaven; the cascades were lit up until 
the water poured down like molten gold; above them towered the 
splendid Festival Hall in a blaze of flame. Never before had such 
a mighty electrical display been seen and the spectators drank it In 
as if their thirst for the glory of light would never be satisfied. Thus 
in splendor ended the memorable First Day. 

Such were the preliminaries of the great World's Fair, which 
we have now to describe. Its buildings and avenues, as has been 
said, radiated from Festival Hall like the ribs of a mighty fan, and 
this hall, crowning a fine natural hill, aff'orded an impressive outlook 
over the whole grand scene. Froni either side of It the "Terrace of 
States" curved outward, a chain of colonnades flanked by sculptured 
groups and by flower beds in full bloom, a noble pavilion rising at 
each end of the great architectural curve. Immediately in front the 
grand cascades tumbled noisily down into the great lagoon below, 
while from the terminal pavilions branched two smaller lagoons, 
joined by a number of canals flowing under low, arched bridges, the 
whole forming a charming series of waterways. From the high 
terrace before Festival Hall was aff"orded the finest general view of 
the heart of the Exposition, the eye passing over the foam of the 
cascades to a fairyland of beauty lying below, a rich and charming 
white city of radiant architecture and adornment, fountains spring- 
ing up to catch the sunbeams in their ralnbowed spray, flowers of 
myriad tints and forms brightening lawns, banks, and sunken gar- 
dens, everjAvhere fine statuary, all beautifully harmonizing in an 
impressive whole. 

If we come now to consider the Exposition more In detail, we 
shall find it was doubly attractive from the two aspects of architecture 
and landscape gardening. The great buildings were arranged to 
combine Into a harmonious group, each of them at the same time 
retaining Its individuality and special beauty or grandeur of design. 
Dazzlingly white In color, they were full of the fine eff"ect of lofty and 
^lender columns, attractive porticos, ornamental cornices, and back 



6o2 



Expositions of Industry 



of these the massive grandeur of the structures themselves. The 
statuary around them added to the general effect, embracing replicas 
of classic marbles and such Wild West subjects as untamed cow- 
boys, lumbering bisons, and the Red Man of the outreaching prairies. 
To these were added statues of men identified with America's 
early history of western discovery, such as LaSalle, Marquette, 




CYPRESS TREES ON THE PEARL RIVER, MISSISSIPPI 
The tree on the right is the monarch of the swamp, the largest on the river. 

Bienville, Clarke, Lewis and Boone, while the groups included 
"The Spirit of the Atlantic," "The Spirit of the Pacific," "The 
Triumph of Music and Art," on the Festival Hall, and various 
others placed in appropriate situations. 

Outside the buildings the art of the landscape gardener had 
been given full scope, the Exposition being peculiarly a place of 
gardens. It was surrounded on three sides with the original forest 



Expositions of Industry 603 

growth, while grass and flowers, shrubs and bushes, gave beauty to 
all the open spaces. The great slope flanking the cascades was 
covered with green lawns and pots of blooming flowers, and ofi^ to the 
left of this extended another green slope in front of the United 
States building. Trees bordered che walks and roadways between 
the buildings, and strips of fresh lawn contrasted with the red lines 
of the footway on the Plaza of. St. Louis. To a marked extent also 
the foreign exhibitors had paid attention to landscape decoration. 
In the English garden were formal beds, with tall hedges and beauti- 
ful old-fashioned flowers. In that of the French Were raised 
terraces, poplar-lined walks, and prettily laid-out flower beds. 
Germany reproduced the palace at Charlottenburg, set in the ex- 
quisite green of its old park. Japan also gave an exhibit of its 
miniature gardens, and many of the State buildings were decorated 
with the hues of lawns and flowers, until the splendid ivory city 
looked like a bright jewel set in green. 

As was proper. Agriculture Hill was the choice spot for the 
landscape lover. Here extended the largest rose garden in the 
world, and near by, in a series of tiny pools, grew all varieties of 
aquatic plants — the lotus of the Nile, the water-hyacinth, the pond- 
lily and the great Victoria Regia, that most wonderful of all blossoms 
floating among the most marvelous of all leaves, leaves like little 
rafts, and strong enough to support a child. In contrast to the fresh 
coolness of the water garden was the garden of the desert, where, 
amid sand and gray rocks, sage brush grows and prickly cactus 
blossoms. These efforts of the landscape gardener made one of the 
great charms of the Exposition. They added to the beauty of the 
buildings and made a pleasant park of an otherwise hot city. 

So much for the external aspect of the scene. But this was only 
the outside setting. It was within the buildings that the multitude of 
striking examples of the work of man's hands, which it was the 
purpose of the Exposition to display, were to be seen. In each of 
them — the buildings of Liberal Arts, Varied Industries, Agriculture, 
Mines, Machinery, Forestry, Horticulture, Electricity, alike — hosts 
of wonders and attractions were artistically displayed. Each of 
these edifices had acres of floor space for the use of exhibitors, and 
there is little of interest in human production possessed by the world 
of which some idea could not be gained. 

While America had an abundance to show, Europe had also 



6o4 Expositions of Industry 

much that attracted the eye of the sightseer. The French had the 
largest exhibit, as was proper for a nation so long identified with the 
Mississippi Valley. From pictures to lace, from Beauvais tapestries 
to the sunniest Burgundies, one saw the interesting art of the genial 
French. And not least, one saw these exhibits presided over by 
portly dames from Provencal cities and pretty young women like 
those who serve in the Paris shops. The British had a little red- 
brick building set in a formal garden that did the tired soul good to 
look at; among the British exhibits perhaps the most eagerly sought 
being that of the Crown jewels of the English kings, which the 
visitor to London sees well guarded in the Tower of London. The 
Germans, as we have said, had a great white palace like the old 
yellow one at Charlottenburg, and therein were examples of the 
excellent industries of the Fatherland. 

Merely to name the various foreign buildings would take long 
columns of space. Italy reproduced the charming Italian villa and 
a garden that breathed of the Italy of the Renaissance. Belgium 
reproduced the Antwerp Town Hall. Austria took the visitor to 
Vienna, and showed him a pavilion done in the art nouveau, a thing 
so much talked about in Europe but so little seen in America, 
Sweden had built a typical Swedish farmhouse, lined it with wood 
brought from the north, and installed in it appropriate furniture, 
so that the whole took one back to days under the sixtieth parallel, 
when rosy-checked, light-haired Swedish market-girls used to greet 
one in his own language, to his great surprise and the girl's satisfac- 
tion. Some of the South American republics were there; Brazil, 
with a domed edifice furnished in hardwoods from the Amazon, 
and coffee-plants in growth; Argentine with a pavilion, and others 
appropriately represented. And in far lands one could wander 
through Hindu temples, into the tea-gardens of Ceylon, past a 
Chinese country house, and thence to the streets of Cairo or of Fez. 

The enjoyment of the lovers of art was not forgotten, the 
Fine Arts building containing plentiful examples of the best paint- 
ings of American and European artists. 

Pictures show what people are thinking about quite as much as 
books, and if the German pictures exhibited at St. Louis seemed to 
lay too much stress on the military side of German life, there were 
occasional examples of the more mystic painters, while other ex- 
hibits were typical of the taste of the Scandinavians, the Italians, 



Expositions of Industry 605 

the Dutch, the French, the English and Americans. Such oppor- 
tunities to compare national characteristics come only at a world's 
fair. 

For those fond of music liberal provision was made. Three 
bands were to be heard daily, and on the immense organ at Festival 
Hall frequent recitals were given by famous organists of many 
nations. An orchestra gave concerts daily in this hall, in which 
the music lover could hear the world's best music, with some of more 
popular than classic character for the delectation of indiscriminate 
audiences. Some of the best choral societies in the country gave 
concerts of diversified music, and a number of the finest of foreign 
bands displayed their powers in this direction. 

At the Chicago Exposition there was introduced, under the 
title of the Midway Plaisance, a section intended for amusement 
and instruction combined, and with such success that a similar 
feature was introduced into later exhibitions, including those at 
Charleston, Buffalo and Portland. At St. Louis this section was 
called "The Pike," and was so replete with things amusing and 
entertaining as to add greatly to the drawing power of the Fair. 
That it was gotten up on a generous and elaborate scale may be seen 
from the fact that its attractive features are said to have cost five 
million dollars in all, its income largely coming from an immense 
restaurant, lofty in its prices, yet drawing daily as many as 5,000 
hungry people to dine at its tables. 

In conclusion of our story of the St. Louis Exposition a brief 
account of the shows that went to make up the Pike will be in order. 
One of the most interesting of these was the " Panorama of the Alps. " 
This, with a frontage of four acres, represented in miniature an 
Alpine range of mountains, rising to peaks a hundred feet in height. 
In this the visitors ascended for a short distance in a railway car, 
going much higher in appearance than in reality, which they left to 
find themselves in a series of winding, rockbound passages, with 
side views that seemed to open up miles of beautiful Tyrolean 
scenery. They then stepped into an elevator, which rose with a 
jogging motion as though moving at great speed up an ascending 
rock face, landing the visitors at length on a peak that seemed a 
hundred times its actual height, and from which they looked down 
on villages nestling in the valleys below and out over ranges of 
mountains covered with glacial snows. The illusion was remark- 



6o6 



Expositions of Industry 



able and gave all who saw it an abiding image of the true 
aspect of the Alps. 

Wandering down the Pike from this point, every rod opened 
some new geographical aspect. For a time the tourist seemed to be 
in the streets of Cairo, with their turbaned Arabs and ungainly 
camels. In a few minutes more he might find himself in a village of 
Spain or a home scene of China or Japan, with the black-eyed and 
round-faced Geisha girls serving tea at Japanese tables. Or he 

might be in a Hin- 
du scene, watching 
the snake charmers 
of India. He might 
even leave the scenes 
of earth and descend 
in a car to the lower 
regions in the place 
of departed spirits, 
with Charon in his 
boat ready to carry 
these ghostly shad- 
ows across the Styx. 
From here he would 
be taken to a point 
where he seemed to 
see the Creation of 
the World as de- 
scribed in Genesis, 
the earth appearing 
to grow out of dense 
clouds of vapor, 
plants to spring up 
upon it, animals 
to come into sight as if newly created, and finally, Adam to 
present himself for a passing moment, as if first brought into being. 
The whole affair was one of those optical illusions which at times can 
be made so wonderfully effective. 

Of course, the early state of affairs in the Louisiana province 
needed to be shown. In this section one could see the rude cabins 
and blockhouses of old St. Louis and not far away a big Indian 



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ROCK MARKING THE SPOT WHERE STONE- 
WALL JACKSON FELL, CHANCELLORS- 
VILLE, VIRGINIA 



Expositions of Industry 607 

village, peopled by redmen from fifty-one different tribes, weaving 
their native costumes, and displaying the Indian ways and wiles, 
above them rising the steep face of an Arizona cliff, with the chance 
of seeing a cliff-dweller peering from his lofty stone house in the 
rocks. 

A feature of much interest Was the Hagenbeck Zoo, in which 
the showman had sought to give realism to his exhibit by preparing 
a luxuriant tropical jungle, in which tigers prowled, tortoises 
waddled, and gorgeous tropic birds gave brilliant color to the scene. 

Elsewhere were to be seen the glass-blowers, magically con- 
verting liquid glass into globes or vases, or drawing it out into threads 
which could be woven into varied designs. In another quarter was 
the Palace of Costumes, in which one saw dresses of all kinds, from 
those of ancient Rome to those of modern Paris. Again the trav- 
eler entered an Eskimo village and beheld the broad-faced Arctic 
dwellers dressed in pajamas instead of their native furs, as more 
suitable to the St. Louis climate, but with their dogs and sledges and 
surrounded with seeming plains of snow and ice. Or a journey 
might be made on the Siberian railway, stopping at a typical Rus- 
sian village, with soldiers and peasants in their native attire. Id fact 
every quarter of the world was represented in costume and by 
examples of its native inhabitants. 

A few statistics will suffice to complete the story of the St. Louis 
World's Fair. It opened its gates April 30 and closed them Decem- 
ber I, 1904, the total attendance for the 187 davs in which it was 
open being 18,741,073. The greatest daily attendance was On St. 
Louis Day, September 15, when 404,450 persons visited the grounds. 
We have elsewhere given a statement of the cost of this great Exposi- 
tion. The returns were about ^10,000,000, as estimated from the 
gate receipts and the amounts paid for concessions of restaurant 
and other privileges. From this was repaid ^5,000,000 loaned by 
the United States. The Exposition closed free of debt, but with 
litde prospect of dividends to the citizen subscribers. In the latter 
it was in no sense singular, this being the general outcome of great 
fairs. They are not inaugurated as money-making enterprises, 
but abundantly pay their way as vast educational displays. 

In some measure associated with this Exposition was that held 
at Pordand, Oregon, from June i to October i, 1905, in commemora- 
tion of the exploration of the Louisiana territory and the Oregon 



6o8 Expositions of Industry 

country, by order of President Jefferson, it being conducted by 
Captains Meriweather Lewis and William Clarke, both Virginians, 
the latter a brother of George Rogers Clarke, whose famous exploits 
we have elsewhere described. This Exposition was one of the 
most interesting and important ever undertaken in America and the 
attractive display made at Portland was a fitting honor to the 
remarkable performance of two hero sons of the Old Dominion 
in the early nineteenth century. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION, 
ITS SITE AND HISTORY 

A great natural event — How Jamestown was settled — The story of the colony — A turn" 
ing point in its history — The Exposition Company chartered — A site chosen — 
Historical interest of the locality — Famous fight of the Merrimac and Monitor — 
Climate of the region — Its points of interest — Death of President Lee — The 
character of the Exposition defined — The State buildings — The improvement of 
the Exposition grounds — A fine example of landscape gardening. — The Exposi- 
tion opening day — Roosevelt reviews the fleets — The inauguration ceremonies 
—The President's speech — The military pageant — A second anniversary cere- 
mony — The auditorium and other buildings — A red and white city — The 
war path — Aquatic events— What the buildings held — A fine government dis- 
play — Exhibits of the Departments — The great pier — Influence of the Exposi- 
tion on the development of the South. 

WITH the year 1907 came another great anniversary date 
in our country's history, second in importance in conti- 
nental events only to the discovery of America by Colum- 
bus, and second to no event in the history of the United States, for 
it was that of the planting of the seed from which, during three 
centuries of steady progress, the mighty tree of the Great Western 
Republic has grown. The event referred to was the founding 
in 1607, at Jamestown, Virginia, of the pioneer successful English 
settlement on this continent, the landing of the one hundred and 
five daring adventurers whose coming was the forerunner of a 
nation of more than 80,000,000 active and enterprising people. 

On the soil of the South, in the year named, the foundation 
stone of the United States was laid. By 1907, three centuries later, 
a splendid edifice of empire had been erected, that of the noblest and 
mightiest nation the world of to-day knows. In view of this fact 
it was deemed expedient to celebrate this event in some adequate 
way, and from this idea sprung the latest of American World's Fairs 
and the one with which we are here concerned, as the most recent 
event of national importance on the soil of the South 

39 609 



6xo 



The Jamestown Exposition 



Let us go back awhile to earlier days and trace in historic 
outhne the event commemorated by this Exposition. In an earlier 
chapter the story of the settlement of Jamestown on May 13, 1607, 
was briefly given. Why then, readers may ask, was April 26, instead 
of May 13, chosen as the date of opening, and Seweil's Point, instead 
of Jamestown Island, as the locality .? To explain this a fuller 
statement of the history of this event is necessary. 

Attempts to plant colonies had earlier been made. Sir Walter 
Raleigh wasted his fortune m such efforts twenty years before. 
In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold set out to found a settlement 




FORTRESS MONROE, VIRGINIA 
Showing a complete panorama of the fortifications. 

on northern shores. But these attempts had dismally failed, and 
Gosnold was one of the famous one hundred and five who landed at 
Jamestown five years later. 

It was in December, 1606, that the first successful colonizing 
expedition set sail from England, in three small vessels, the Good 
Speed, the Discovery, and the Susan Constant, under Captain 
Christopher Newport, one of Raleigh's captains, to cross the seas to 
the shores of the New World. These little barks met with biting 
gales and surging waves on their way to an unknown goal. Their 



The Jamestown Exposition 6ii 

enterprise was one of the highest historic importance, for it is very 
possible that, if they had failed, later immigrants might have been 
discouraged, the Spaniards have obtained control and the destiny 
of the North American continent been entirely changed. For- 
tunately they did not fail. Feehng their way up the coast and pass- 
ing the locality of Raleigh's defeated efforts, on the 26th of April, 
1607, they rounded the southern cape of Chesapeake Bay and 
entered that noble body of water. Here, on the sand dunes of the 
cape, their first landing on American soil was made and it is this 
date of this first landing that has been commemorated in the opening 
day of the Exposition. They did not stay there long, for a party of 
hostile Indians attacked them, wounding some of them with their 
arrows and driving them back to the ships. To this cape they 
gave the name of Cape Henry, while the northern one they called 
Cape Charles, those names being in honor of the two sons of the 
King. 

The next morning the bold adventurers sailed into the great 
bay spreading out before them and passed through an inner and 
narrower passage that opened into a splendid harbor, now known as 
Hampton Roads. Here anchor was dropped in a sheltered place 
which, in the quaint language of their historian, "gave the emigrants 
good comfort." The spot received the name of Point Comfort, and 
it is known as Old Point Comfort to-day. Here they enjoyed the 
unrivaled oyster of the Chesapeake and found strawberries "four 
times bigger and better than ours in England.'* 

That the ocean-tossed emigrants were delighted with the quiet 
and beautiful haven they had reached scarcely need be said. Ver- 
dant, forest-clad shores rose all around them, bounding the broad 
liquid expanse, and the scene, whose beauty is admired to-day 
must have seemed paradisal to their water-wearied eyes. Here, they 
decided, was the place for their settlement to be made. They 
quickly learned that the harbor they had entered formed the outlet 
of a noble river, to which they subsequently gave the name of 
Powhatan, after the Indian chief who ruled the region around, but 
afterwards called the James, in honor of James I., then king of 
England. After lying in this favored spot a few days, they spread 
their sails again, desiring to explore the river and seek a suitable 
spot to land and found their homes in the New World. 

Finally, on May 13, they reached a peninsula that jutted 



6 12 The Jamestown Exposition 

out into the stream some thirty-five or forty miles above its mouth. 
Around this the river made a wide curve, leaving a narrow neck to 
connect it with the main land, a formation that made it easy of 
fortification and defense against hostile natives. This fact ruled in 
the choice of what proved to be an unhealthful site, as shown by a 
quick outbreak of disease and the death of many of the settlers. 
They first called it Fort James, but later gave it the name of James 
City, and still later that of Jamestown, its historic title. 

War, flood, and fire, as time went on, made havoc with this 
place. Long ago the water of the James washed away the neck of 
land and converted the peninsula into an island, which for nearly 
two centuries it has remained. The town itself vanished more than 
two centuries ago. It narrowly escaped being burned in its 
early days, when temporarily deserted by its inhabitants. It was 
set on fire and burned during the warlike outbreak of 1676, 
known as Bacon's Rebellion. About twenty years later an acci- 
dental fire broke out and consumed what remained of the old town. 
It was never rebuilt, the seat of government being removed, in 1698, 
to Williamsburg. Of the famous old settlement, the first English 
town in America, scarcely a trace remains, beyond the archway and 
wall of the old church tower, which still stands as the sole memento 
of the Jamestown of the past. 

History and romance cling round this locality. The first 
edifice to be erected by the settlers was a tent, and by nailing a board 
between two trees, they made a reading desk for their chaplain, the 
Reverend Robert Hunt, who here gave the first religious service in 
the English tongue on American soil. Fortunately for the settlers, 
they had with them a man of remarkable energy, judgment and 
decision, the famous Captain John Smith, the ablest man among the 
early settlers of America. For two years his story was one of 
adventure and practical activity, and it was due solely to him that 
the settlement was kept alive during its first uncertain period of 
existence. He had scarcely set sail for England, severely wounded by 
an accident, when everything went wrong. Massacre and famine, 
due to their heedlessness, decimated the settlers. Of the five hundred 
men left behind by Smith, only sixty remamed alive in May, 16 10, 
and these so haggard, starved, and miserable, that on the arrival of 
Captain Newport with a squadron for relief it was decided to 
abandon the settlement. On June 7, while the drums rolled a 



The Jamestown Exposition 



613 



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6h The Jamestown Exposition 

dirge, the weary remnant carried their few household treasures 
aboard the vessels, and only a shred of good advice prevented them 
from burning the small town they were leaving, as they supposed, 
forever. Fortunately, when Hampton Roads was reached, a small 
sail was seen in the distance, and as it came nearer it proved to be 
the longboat of Lord Delaware, a new governor whom the company 
had sent out. His ships lay below. Back to their deserted village, 
at his advice, went the colonists, and there on the following Sunday 
they stood in military array to present arms to the governor, who 
landed from his boat, fell on his knees and thanked God that his 
coming had saved Virginia. Narrow was the interval between 
success and failure. Had he come a day later he would have found 
a bare array of empty huts. 

This was the turning point in the English settling of America. 
PVom that time forward the colony prospered. Cattle, sheep, 
horses and pigs were brought over, crops were planted and flourished, 
and finally the culture of tobacco was introduced and the exportation 
of this weed began to make the settlers rich. One thing they lacked, 
the right of self-government, and this was given them by Governor 
Yeardly in 1619, when he summoned the General Assembly of 
Virginia, the first legislative body ever known in America. To this 
important point had the Virginian colony advanced before 1620, 
when the second English colony was planted by the Plymouth 
Pilgrims. Such is the historic event which the Jamestown Ter- 
centennial Exposition was designed to commemorate. 

The idea of celebrating in some way this leading event in our 
history arose in the later days of the nineteenth century, but at first 
only some modest ceremony, of an appropriate kind, was thought 
of. As the years went on this grew in men's minds, until finally it 
was deemed desirable to make the occasion a great and memorable 
one, and instead of a simple ceremonial observance, to celebrate 
the occasion by a historical and industrial Exposition. 

This development of the project was reached early in the 
twentieth century, and in 1902 the legislature of Virginia chartered 
the Jamestown Exposition Company, its incorporators embracing 
one hundred of the leading men of the state, and its president being 
General Fitzhugh Lee, a famed hero of the Civil War and a prom- 
inent actor in the recent war with Spain. The legislature appro- 
priated ^200,000 toward the cost of the enterprise and required the 



The Jamestown Exposition 



615 



incorporators to obtain subscriptions amounting to ;^ 1,000,000 by 
January i, 1904. Thus launched, the Exposition project entered 
upon its diversified career. 

The selection of a site was the first thing to be considered. 
Historically and sentimentally Jamestown seemed the only appro- 
priate locality, but there were economical reasons why it should not 
be chosen. Ease of access and ready means of accommodating a 
large influx of visitors are essential to the success of such an enter- 
prise, and in these 
particulars the site of 
the old settlement 
was sadly lacking. 
Such an enterprise, to 
be financially success- 
ful, must be in or near 
a large city, and the in- 
corporators were 
obliged to look abroad. 
Richmond was con- 
sidered but was reject- 
ed as being too far in- 
land and remote from 
the site of the events 
to be commemorated. 
The vicinity of Norfolk t 
was next thought oi ^^^ 
and was at once seen across "the canoe trail" 

to be in every WaV ap- Showing the Hospital and the States' Exhibits Building. 

propriate. It was easy of access by rail and water and was in 
the immediate vicinity of Hampton Roads, in the waters of which 
the little fleet of the colonists had first dropped anchor and decided 
that there was no need to go farther, that here they had come 
to stay. 

No better spot could have been chosen, Sewell's Point, the 
site decided upon, is four miles from Norfolk, with which it is 
connected by an electric road, and projects into Hampton 
Roads, across whose waters it can be reached by boat in twenty 
minutes from Old Point, Hampton and Newport News, while 
within a moderate distance around it dwells a population of 




6i6 



The Jamestown Exposition 



a quarter million of, people. In addition to those economical con- 
siderations was its close historical association with the original 
settlement and the scenic beauty given by the noble expanse 
of Hampton Roads, the *'home of the United States Navy," as it 
has been called, and offering a splendid opportunity for a display 
of the naval strength of the nations on original lines of beauty 
and suggestiveness. 




Diagram showing the convenient location of the grounds, with circles marking the 
distances to surrounding towns. 

There are other historic reasons which render this site a re- 
markable one, a nodal point in American history. The surrounding 
region, within the limit of no great number of miles, is vital with 
events of leading prominence. The locality is notable for its close 
connection with important incidents in the Revolutionary War, the 
the Southern portion of which began in the battle of Great Bridge, 
not far south of Norfolk, in October, 1775, and the subsequent 
burninf^ of the city of Norfolk by Lord Dunmore, the last royal 
governor of Virginia. The war ended in this vicinity with its most 



The Jamestown Exposition 617 

significant event, the surrender of Cornwallis at York town, a 
locality not many miles to the north. Not until that surrender was 
it sure that the independence of the young country would be won, 
so that in this region we possess the cradle in which the infant of 
American nationality was laid and the battle-field on which was 
finally secured the great boon of American liberty. 

During the Civil War a Hke interest attached tothis local- 
ity. At Big Bethel, not far to the north of Hampton Roads, was 
fought on June lo, 1861, the first battle of that war. Like the later 
Bull Run it proved a Confederate victory. 

As the war proceeded the whole neighboring region was fought 
over by fierce contending armies, and the close of the siege of Peters- 
burg, up the James River, brought this great conflict to an end, as 
the close of the siege of Yorktown, up the York River, had brought 
to an end the Revolutionary War. 

But that which made the immediate locaHty especially memor- 
able was a naval, not a mihtary, event, the great conflict, already 
alluded to, of the pioneer iron-clads, a battle which proved the 
turning point in the modern naval history of the world. It is this 
event that has given special significance to the naval features of 
the Exposition, and it is of such leading importance in this connec- 
tion that some fuller mention of it is here desirable. 

During all the many centuries of earlier history ocean battles 
had been fought in wooden ships. But as cannon became huge in 
size and rifled guns came into use, their destructive effect grew so 
great that some stronger defense than walls of wood was called for 
and some efforts had been made to cover the hulls of war vessels 
with iron. The value of this new idea in naval warfare was first 
demonstrated in actual battle on the waters of Hampton Roads, on 
that historic day in March, 1862, when the iron-clad Virginia— usual- 
ly known as the Merrimac — came down like a thing of terror from 
Norfolk and fell upon the strong fleet of old-time war-vessels lying 
in the Roads. Powerful as they had been deemed, they proved 
like ships of lath and plaster before the onslaught of this new-born 
monarch of the main. 

Then came steaming into the Roads the low-lying Monitor, 
with raft-like deck and revolving turret of iron, and one of the most 
momentous battles in naval history took place. It was more than a 
battle; it was a mile-post event in the world's history. The genius 



6i8 The Jamestown Exposition 

of naval warfare hovered over those two hard-shelled monsters, 
neither of which seemed capable of inflicting any harm on its 
opponent. It was evident that a ^reat turning point had come; 
that the proud fleets of the past were henceforth to be of no more 
value in warfare than so much kindling wood. The whole world 
looked on in alarm and hastened to cover its war vessels with thick 
armor of iron and steel; and to-day there float in all the naval 
harbors of the world fleets of huge steel fortresses, the successors 
of the obsolete wooden fleets of the past. 

It is this that gives a signal significance to the naval display of 
the Exposition in Hampton Roads. Here, where the first battle of 
iron-clads was fought, is the appropriate place for a gathering of 
the world's navies, the first great international modern naval display, 
and hither was sent a significant detachment of the mighty war 
brood that has grown from the iron-shelled egg that was laid in these 
waters forty-five years ago. 

The vicinity of Hampton Roads is admirably suited to a great 
Exposition for other reasons. Here nature has done much to create 
a territory supremely attractive. In this favored region we stand 
midway between the tropic and arctic realms, the regions of severe 
heat and cold, the chmate of this midland district being pleasantly 
mild alike in winter and summer. Here the extremes of temperature 
vary less from the average than anywhere else in the Atlantic States. 
Humidity is not excessive and the breezes that blow continuously 
rarely rise to the proportion of gales, while they prevent the stagna- 
tion of sultriness so often felt elsewhere. It is a region in which 
malaria has not taken root and to which the victims of malarial 
fever come to find relief In short, nature has seemingly done her 
best to make this an agreeable place of residence, and Old Point 
Comfort, a few miles distant from the site of the Exposition, across 
the outlet of the Roads, has long been a favorite place of resort for 
Northern and Southern visitors ahke. There are various other 
attractive seashore resorts in the immediate vicinity, Virginia Beach, 
Ocean View, Willoughby Beach and Pine Beach, all easily accessible 
from Norfolk, the ocean here presenting a beach front of unsur- 
passed beauty and safety. 

Man has done his share to make the locaHty attractive. Near 
the site of the Exposition are thriving cities, powerful forts, a large 
navy yard, an immense ship yard, popular hotels, yacht and other 



The Jamestown Exposition 619 

club houses, and other attractions. Up the James River are to be 
seen some of the finest examples of colonial architecture in America. 
Fortress Monroe, close to the Old Point Comfort hotels, is a strong- 
hold of much historic interest, since it had its origin as a fortification 
in a palisaded enclosure of the early settlers, planned as long ago as 
16 14 and fortified a few years later. It is now the largest and finest 
fortress in America and is the chief artillery station of the United 
States Government. Midway between this fortress and the Ex- 
position grounds, rising from the water, is the Rip-Raps, a modern 
fort. Newport News, a town at the mouth of the James River, 
possesses one of the greatest ship-building plants of the country. 
At Hampton, a village between Fortress Monroe and Newport 
News, are a large Soldiers' Home and the Hampton Institute, a 
flourishing industrial negro school. Up the Elizabeth River, an 
estuary of Hampton Roads, are the cities of Norfolk and Ports- 
mouth and the town of Berkley. Portsmouth is the seat of the im- 
portant Norfolk Navy Yard and at Norfolk is the chief coahng 
station of the Government. Yorktown, where the final victory of 
the Revolution was won, is at the mouth of York River, not many 
miles to the north. Most of these places are of historic interest, 
dating back to the seventeenth century, and Hampton, originally 
a village of friendly Indians, is the oldest place in America where 
men of English birth have continuously dwelt. Jamestown, the 
original settlement, has nothing to show of it's former existence but 
the ruins of its old church tower; Williamsburg, the second capital 
of Virginia, having replaced it more than two centuries ago. Farther 
up the James lies Richmond, Virginia's third capital, and a place of 
interest from its history and its artistic and antiquarian monuments. 
Such are the places worth seeing, for historic or other reasons, 
within easy reach of the Exposition site, while the peninsula between 
the James and the York River has been the scene of more important 
military events than any other locality of similar extent in our 
country. 

Such were the reasons for selecting Sewell's Point as the locality 
of the Jamestown Tercentenary Exposition and such the varied 
features of interest attaching to the site. Let us go forward now 
with the story of the Exposition itself. It met with a serious loss 
before its work of preparation was fairly underway, in the death, on 
April 28, 1905, of its strenuous and energetic presiding officer, 



620 The Jamestown Exposition 

General Fitzhugh Lee, who had made earnest efforts to secure a 
complete representation of all the States of the Union. His activity 
in this may have brought on the apoplectic attack v^^hich carried 
Jiim away in the midst of his labors. He was succeeded by Hon. 
St, George Tucker, a descendant of the celebrated John Randolph, 
of Roanoke, and a statesman of acknowledged ability. 

The preliminary ^1,000,000 v\^as quickly subscribed and Con- 
gress was asked for an appropriation of ^5,000,000, but finally 
appropriated ^1,575,000 for specified purposes, and at the same time 
gave a new aspect to the Exposition by deciding that it should take 
the novel form of an international naval, marine and military cele- 
bration on the waters of Hampton Roads. This act was passed 
March 3, 1905, and shortly afterward President Roosevelt issued a 
proclamation defining the objects of the exhibition and going on to 
sav: "I do therefore invite all the nations of the earth to take part 
in the commemoration of an event v/hich has had a far-reaching 
effect on the course of human history, by sending their naval vessels 
to the said celebration and by making such representations of their 
military organizations as may be proper." 

In accordance with this new idea concerning the controlling 
feature of the Exposition, President Tucker soon visited Europe, 
where he had satisfactory interviews with King Edward and other 
crowned heads, almost every country in Europe promising to take 
part in the display, w".th battleships and troops. Others interested 
in the enterprise visited the countries of Asia and Latin America, 
and interviewed their governing powers, with the result that almost 
every country in the world agreed to participate, many of them 
promising to send battleships and other fighting craft and large 
bodies of their best drilled troops. 

The American exhibit was to include, in addition to a splendid 
naval and military contingent, the most complete display of the 
multiform activities of the government departments ever shown. 
About twenty-five of the states also made handsome appropriations 
for buildings and exhibits, Virginia, as was naturally to be expected, 
erecting one of the largest and most attractive of the state buildings 
on the grounds, with a handsome colonial portico. It had been 
decided that the characteristic feature of all the architecture should 
be colonial, and the various states complied with this. Pennsyl- 
vania built an exact reproduction of old Independence Hall, the 



The Jamestown Exposition 



621 



"Cradle of Liberty." New Jersey contributed a replica of Wash- 
ington's headquarters at Morristown. Rhode Island copied its 
first state capitol at Newport. Ohio reproduced "Adena, " the 
home of its first governor. Maryland copied the home of John 
Carroll, of Carrollton; Missouri its oldest large colonial building; 
Kentucky a counterpart of Daniel Boone's fort, and other states 
made similar historical contributions. An interesting and fitting 
part of the Virginian exhibit was a representation of the town of 
Jamestown, as it was supposed to have appeared in its early days 
with forts, stockades, and Indian villages. 

These state buildings stretched along the whole water front, 
many of them direct- 
ly facing the Roads. 
Several of them were 
substantially built, 
with the idea that they 
miffht be available as 
permanent summer 
residences. Nearly 
all of them represent- 
ed good examples of 
colonial architecture. 
Between them and the 
water extended a 
broad avenue, Wil- 
loughby Terrace, de- 
signed to be part of a driveway from Norfolk. Fronting this again 
and extending more than two miles along the water's edge, was built 
a broad boardwalk, destined to prove one of the most popular 
thoroughfares in the grounds. In addition to the state buildings, 
the Government exhibits occupied edifices along this walk, all 
giving a view out over the broad expanse of the Roads. 

Before speaking of the large exhibition buildings, the general 
lay out and aspect of the grounds must be described. Sewell's 
Point was originally an unattractive expanse of sand, marsh and 
woodland, a derelict that the best facilities of landscape art were 
needed to convert into a thing of beauty. But its situation, facing 
the splendid expanse of Hampton Roads, was wonderfully in its 
favor. 




THE MISSISSIPPI BUILDING 

A reproduction of "Beauvoir," the old home 

of Jefferson Davis. 



622 



The Jamestown Exposition 




|u,u(ua> 



With a frontage of some two miles on the waters of this noble 
harbor, with its i6o square miles of liquid surface, the Exposition 
grounds were magnificently placed. From the water front they 
extended nearly a mile to the south, to a thick growth of forest trees, 
the total area being about 400 acres. For half a mile along one side 

of this runs Boush 
Creek, while on 
the other sides a 
high woven-wire 
fence was built. 
The barrenness of 
this was over- 
come by planting 
beautiful vines 
thickly along side, 
these including 
the trumpet vine, 
the Virginia 
creeper, the hon- 
eysuckle and the 
crimson rambler 
rose, which be- 
fore the opening 
day had grown 
into a close green 
border, variega- 
ted with brilliant 
bloom in their 
blossoming pe- 
riod. Inside the 
'^rounds the dec- 
orators found 
much to do, in the 



|tO],4)9.4B> 
4..t2LS7l 



"w FFffim 



U,»M» 
UJSIJOS 
I UI.<K»,U> 




Diagram showing the increase in amount of capital invested 
in Southern manufacturing, 1890, 1900, 1905. 

removal of ragged undergrowth, the opening of streets, avenues and 
sylvan paths, the building of rustic bridges over the wandering brooks 
and the setting out in handsome parterres about the buildings and 
in the open spaces of more than a million choice shrubs and plants. 
The forest trees were left wherever this could be done without in- 
terference with the plans, the grounds being well shaded, while 



The Jamestown Exposition 623 

here and there a giant of the primeval woodland was left standing in 
the center of a picturesque grass plot near the large buildings. 

The most awkward feature to be dealt with was a spread- 
ing piece of marsh in the southeast corner of the grounds, 
unsightly in appearance and irregular in shape, winding for a 
length of two miles through the area. This bit of pristine ugliness 
was eventually converted into one of the chief attractions, it 
being thoroughly ditched, its banks sodded, suitable landings pro- 
vided, and the marsh turned into a meandering "canoe trail," a, 
picturesque watercourse for the use of oarsmen, hundreds of 
canoes being furnished, to be offered to visitors at a nominal rent. 

The spot chosen, in fact, is remarkable as being in the near 
vicinity of three of the cardinal points in American history, the 
settlement at Jamestown, the Yorktown battlefield, and the scene 
of the pioneer battle of iron-clads, the Merrimac and Monitor, which 
took place in Hampton Roads immediately opposite Sewell's Point. 
In view of this interesting fact it was proposed to build similar 
vessels and give at intervals a reproduction of this famous battle on 
the exact spot in which it took place. 

Along this winding canoe trail — two miles long and twelve feet 
wide— was laid out a romantic walk, following its curves for more 
than a mile, beautifully bordered by trees and shrubbery, and 
extending into remote sections of the shaded grounds, it being 
prettily suggestive, in its rustic charm, of the woodland paths of 
pioneer times. It was given the name of Flirtation Walk, in sugges- 
tion of one of the uses to which it was likely to be put. Lovers' 
Lane is a second appropriate title which it fitly bore. A thousand 
electric lamps, hung in the vines and bushes, gave it light at night. 

It will be seen that the landscape gardeners showed artistic 
taste and skill in converting this flat expanse into a place of 
beauty and charm. One of its attractive features was the 
broad level known as Lee's Parade, a sodded and well-rolled field 
of thirty-five acres area, facing on their southward side, the central 
buildings. Footpaths surrounded it and an old apple orchard had 
been transplanted to border it, the trees being set out ten feet apart 
and shading the walks. This was done two years before the opening, 
which came at the time of the blooming of the trees. 

Here it was proposed to hold at frequent intervals parades of our 
own or foreign soldiers and sailors, while south and southwest of 



624 The Jamestown Exposition 

the parade grounds were level fields, designed to be used for camping 
grounds. There was room here for large numbers of troops, and 
for a very attractive display of the methods of camping in use by 
various nations. 

To the work done on land the United States government added, 
at an expense of ^500,000, a monumental piece of work on the v/ater. 
This consisted of two great piers, each two hundred feet wide and 
extending 2,000 feet outward from the shore. They were an eighth 
of a mile apart and their outer ends were connected by a third pier 
of the same width, with an archway in its center through which all 
kinds of passenger and other small craft could pass. In this way 
was formed an enclosed basin of forty acres in area and with a depth 
of ten feet at mean low tide, which became a very suitable place for 
minor aquatic and swimming contests. Tall towers were erected 
on the ends of the piers and used for the exhibit of the lighthouse 
service and of wireless telegraphy. The entire range of piers was 
illuminated with electricity at night, and on the shore line handsome 
passenger stations were built, the starting place for excursion boats 
setting out to make the round of the outer harbor. 

On the 26th of April, 1907, the day set aside for the inau- 
guration of the Jamestown Tercentennial celebration, the sun 
rose propitiously over Virginia's seaside plains and nature 
smiled with fervent favor upon the enterprise. The plan, as 
outlined, had included a salute of three hundred guns at sunrise, 
one for each year of the three centuries of American growth, 
but the necessary gunpowder was not at hand and this feature of 
the occasion was omitted. But noise and the roar of great guns 
were not wanting, for when, at the hour of 8.30, President Roose- 
velt appeared upon the scene in his yacht, the Mayflower, the 
welkin rang as if a new battle was in progress upon Hampton Roads. 

It was a splendid and impressive spectacle that awaited him. 
Spread far over the surface of that great body of water was visible a 
display of warships such as had rarely been seen, embracing fifty 
steel-clad dogs of war, thirty of them American and twelve present 
as the vanguard of the foreign fleet. As they lay there, all glowing 
in the lines of their national flags and of the pennants and bunting 
that form the international signal code, there appeared from the 
shore a gleam of rich color in the morning light;the first line formed 
by the visiting warships, the second by the greatest array of Ameri- 



The Jamestown Exposition 625 

can battleships ever presented— sixteen of the wide-hulled, steel-clad, 
fighting monsters that form the backbone of the American navy. 
Stretching away in a curving line up the broad channel, under the 
command of Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, they ranged from the 
great i6,ooo-ton vessels of the Connecticut and Louisiana type to 
the diminutive 6,300-ton Texas, the sister ship of the old Maine, that 
came to a lamentable end in Havana harbor. In a third line, 
largely hidden from the eyes of spectators on shore by the great 
battleships, were the cruisers and torpedo craft; and clustered far 
inshore, toward the Exposition water front, lay the naval vessels 
that were to remain till the close of the Exposition on November i. 

Such was the impressive spectacle that met the eyes of the 
President and his guests as the Mayflower steam.ed in from the 
Chesapeake and approached the great array of banner-bearing 
ships. The foreign vessels, including the squadrons sent by Great 
Britain, Germany, Austria and Argentina, held the post of honor in 
a line parallel with the Exposition shores, looming in deep-shaded 
relief against the grand background of American battleships, while 
it hundreds of brilliant flags floated from masthead and peak, 
from fighting tops and flying truck. Among those present to view 
were the military and naval ofl&cials of thirty-seven nations, the 
Ambassadors and Ministers of those nations being prominent 
among those who witnessed the pageant from the deck of the 
steamship Newport News. 

As the Mayflower, with the rainbow flag floating at her peak, 
glided swiftly from the eastward toward the head of the column of 
warships, there boomed from the Connecticut, Admiral Evans's 
flagship, the opening guns of the presidential salute. In a quick 
echo the other American ships and the foreign vessels took up the 
strain, a roar of twenty-one guns from every ship pouring out in al- 
most simultaneous thunder. Pointing her prow up the Roads, the 
President's yacht passed in review the line of foreign ships "close 
aboard,*' each of these opening fire in succession with a new series 
of salutes, which was repeated in turn by every battleship and 
cruiser of the fleet as the reviewing yacht passed them by. The 
crews of each ship were drawn up in close order along the forward 
and quarter decks and on the elevated points, standing at atten- 
tion as the Mayflower moved past. 

The outer line left behind, the yacht turned down the long 

40 



626 



The Jamestown Exposition 



array of heavy American battleships, to be greeted with a deafening 
roar of cannon fire from the Indiana, this being repeated down the 
long line until the Georgia closed the thunder of sound with her 
guns. The circuit of the ships completed, the Mayflower steamed 
to her chosen anchorage within the group of flagships, and the 
President received on board the flag officers of the foreign and 
American ships. 

Fourteen years before, in 1893, ^" international naval rendezvous 
had been held in Hampton Roads. But the new American navy 




A SECTION OF THE PALACE OF COMMERCE 

was then in its infancy, and nothing could be more significant of 
the recent immense progress in naval architecture than the contrast 
between the few and comparatively small vessels shown at that 
time and the mighty proportions of the Atlantic fleet which Admiral 
Evans had under his command in 1907, each ship a marvel of 
fighting strength. 

The naval review was witnessed by more than twenty thousand 
persons, grouped on the shores of the Exposition grounds, by the 



The Jamestown Exposition 627 

diplomatic, naval and military representatives of nearly two score 
of nations, and by the governors of a score of states. The review 
over, the throng of spectators rushed toward the grand stand to 
secure places within hearing of the speakers' voices in the inaugural 
exercises that were to follow. 

For several weeks previous the Exposition management had 
made every effort to have the great fair ready by the opening day, 
but as in all such cases they did not succeed. The weather was 
against them, contractors were unable to complete many of the 
buildings in time to install the exhibits, freight congestion on the 
railway and steamship lines delayed the arrival of shipments, and 
it proved impossible to unload, unpack and install the thousands of 
exhibits consigned. As for the removal of the debris that was 
strewn over the grounds and the scaffolding that inclosed many of 
the buildings, it was equally impossible, and the only large structures 
that were ready on the opening day were the United States Govern- 
ment building and the States' Exhibits Palace. 

Such was the chaotic state of affairs that greeted the eyes of 
the visitors and of the President and his party when they left the 
yacht about noon at Discovery Landing. A distinguished party 
here awaited them, including President Tucker and the other chief 
officials of the Exposition, Rear Admiral P. F. Harrington, who 
had charge of the naval programme, and Major-General Frederick 
D. Grant, in command of the military contingent. Those ex- 
changed greetings with the President, while patriotic airs were played 
by the bands. 

As the President stepped ashore, he was welcomed by President 
Tucker of the Exposition company, who warmly grasped his hand, 
exclaiming, 

" Old Virginia salutes you, sir. " 

"I am very glad indeed to be here," was the President's 
cordial reply. 

"It is a Roosevelt day and Roosevelt weather," some one 
remarked. 

"I hope it will prove a good omen for the Exposition," the 
President laughingly responded. 

A grand stand for the inaugural ceremonies had been erected in 
front of the great Auditorium building, the mighty throng of spec- 
tators extending over the parade ground upon which this edifice 



628 



The Jamestown Exposition 



faced. Here they wildly cheered the official party as they drove 
up in carriages and took their places upon the stand, the President 
mounting the platform from which he was to address the vast audi- 
ence. 

In eager desire to come within hearing of his voice the thousands 
upon the outskirts of the crowd began to press forward, with a 
crushing effect that endangered the lives and limbs of those in 
front. The guards were being swept aside by the advancing mass 
and a panic seemed on the point of developing, when the President, 

seeing the peril, leaped 
upon a table and 
waved his arms to the 
crowding multitude. 

"If there is one 
thing that marks a 
body of Americans, 
and especially a body 
of Virginians, " he 
shouted, "It is that 
they take good care of 
women and children." 
The crowd moved 
back at these words, 
but his address had 
scarcely begun when the forward movement was resumed, and 
General Grant was obliged to send a squadron of cavalry to restore 
order. These gradually opened up the congested mass, slowly 
allaying the confusion and excitement that prevailed and bringing 
the spectators to a state of calm and quiet. This prompt action 
averted a probable disaster. 

Two thousand favored guests were seated on the grand stand 
when the President and his immediate party entered the 
special inclosure reserved for them in the center. The sun was 
very hot, but an awning shielded the President. However 
the solar rays poured down unbroken upon the heads of the En- 
glish, French and other Ambassadors. These courteously uncovered 
as the President began to speak. This he observed as he turned 
toward them in the opening part of his address. With his usual 
impulsive goodwill he paused and said: 




,.i ..... (ilA BUILDING 
A reproduction "Bullock Hall," Roswell, Ga., 
the home of President Roosevelt's mother. 



The Jamestown Exposition 629 

"Put on your hats, please. We are not going to have any 
sunstrokes here." 

The crowd loudly cheered as the suffering diplomats quickly 
and gratefully obliged the timely suggestion. The formal pro- 
gramme opened with an overture by the bands — "Jamestown 
Dixie" — expressly composed for the occasion. The Exposition 
chorus followed with an appropriate selection, and Bishop 
Randolph, of the Diocese of Southern Virginia, pronounced a 
fitting prayer. The chorus then sang the official opening hymn, 
after which President Tucker rose and faced the audience. His 
remarks were confined to a brief review of the history of the Ex- 
position, which he ended with an introduction of President Roosevelt 
to the audience. 

After allaying the excitement that followed his rising, the 
President continued to speak from the table which he had mounted 
in his effort to quiet the crowd. Beginning with a graceful re- 
cognition of the foreign representatives present, he continued with 
the following rapid historical review: 

"The pioneers of our people who first landed on these shores 
on that eventful day three centuries ago had before them a task 
which during the early years was of heartbreaking danger and 
difficulty. 

"At last they took root in the land, and were already prosper- 
ing when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. In a few years a great 
inflow of settlers began. Four of the present States of New England 
were founded. Virginia waxed apace. The Carolinas grew up to 
the south of it and Maryland to the north of it. The Dutch colonies 
between, which had already absorbed the Swedish, were in their 
turn absorbed by the English. Pennsylvania was founded and, 
later still, Georgia. There were many wars with the Indians and 
with the dauntless captains whose banners bore the lilies of France. 
At last the British flag flew without a rival in all eastern North 
America. Then came the successful struggle for national inde- 
pendence. 

"Two generations passed before the second great crisis of our 
history had to be faced. Then came the Civil War, terrible and 
bitter in itself and in its aftermath, but a struggle from which the 
nation finally emerged united in fact as well as in name, united 
forever. Rich and prosperous though we are as a people, the 



^3° The Jamestown Exposition 

proudest heritage that each of us has, no matter where he may 
dwell, North or South, East or West, is the immaterial heritage of 
feeling, the right to claim as his own all the valor and all the stead- 
fast devotion to duty shown by the men of both the great armies, 
the soldiers whose leader was Grant and the soldiers whose leader 
was Lee. We, too, must show ourselves worthy sons of the men of 
the mighty days by the way in which we meet the problems of our 
own time. We carry our heads high because our fathers did well in the 
years that tried men's souls; and we must in our turn so bear our- 
selves that the children who come after us may feel that we, too, 
have done our duty." 

Continuing with a reference to certain evils incident to the 
great material progress of this country, and the abuses which have 
arisen in consequence in the industrial world, he concluded with 
the following wholesome words; 

"Above all, we insist that while facing changed conditions 
and new problems, we must face them in the spirit which our 
forefathers showed when they founded and preserved this Republic. 
The cornerstone of the Republic lies in our treating each man on 
his creed, his birthplace, or his occupation, asking not whether he 
is rich or poor, whether he labors with head or hand; asking only 
whether he acts decently and honorably in the various relations 
of his hfe, whether he behaves well to his family, to his neighbors, 
to the State. We base our regard for each man on the essentials 
and not the accidents. We judge him not by his profession, but 
by his deeds; by his conduct^ not by what he has acquired of this 
world's goods. Other Republics have fallen, because the citizens 
gradually grew to consider the interests of a class before the interests 
of the whole; for when such was the case it mattered little whether 
it was the poor who plundered the rich or the rich who exploited 
the poor; in either event the end of the Republic was at hand. 
We are resolute in our purpose not to fall into such a pit. This 
great Republic of ours shall never become the government of a 
plutocracy, and it shall never become the government of a mob. 
God willing, it shall remain what our fathers who founded it meant 
it to be — a government in which each man stands on his worth as a 
man, where each is given the largest personal liberty consistent 
with securing the well-being of the whole, and where, so far as in 
us lies, we strive continually to secure for each man such equality 



The Jamestown Exposition 



631 




PART OF A $6,000 APPLE CROP IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
The owner gave up the business of selling jewelry to become a farmer , 



^32 The Jamestown Exposition 

of opportunity that in the strife of Hfe he may have a fair chance to 
show the stuff that is in him. We are proud of our schools and of 
the trained intelhgence they give our children the opportunity to 
acquire. But what we care for most is the character of the average 
man; for we beheve that if the average of character in the individual 
citizen is suJBiciently high, if he possesses those qualities which make 
him worthy of respect in his family life and in his work outside, as 
well as the qualities which fit him for success in the hard struggle 
of actual existence — that if such is the character of our individual 
citizenship, there is literally no height of triumph unattainable in 
this vast experiment of government by, of, and for a free people. " 

In the original plan the President was to have pushed a gold 
button to start the machinery, but as there was no machinery in 
readiness to start, he conveniently forgot this part of the programme. 

A roar of guns followed the close of the address, all the bands 
united in playing the "Star-Spangled Banner," during which the 
troops saluted the national hymn and the people stood with bared 
heads. Lunch was then served in the auditorium annex, to the 
President and the distinguished guests. In this interval the parade 
ground was cleared for the military pageant to follow, the crowd 
gathering around the walk to witness it. 

The parade and review over, a reception was tendered the 
President in the rotunda of the Auditorium by the officers and 
directors of the Exposition. Immediately afterv\^ard he returned 
to the Mayflower and the opening ceremonies of the Jamestown 
Exposition were at an end. 

There was a second anniversary occasion on May 13, the date 
of the landing on Jamestown peninsula three hundred years before. 
There were simple exercises at the site of the old settlement, a few 
hundred persons gathering around the old church tower, where 
addresses were made by Claude A. Swanson, Governor of Vir- 
ginia, and by James Bryce, Ambassador of Great Britain and 
famous as the author of "The Holy Roman Empire" and "The 
American Commonwealth." He fitly noted the great importance 
of the event and the character of those concerned in it, saying: 

"The landing at Jamestown was one of the great events in the 
history of the world— an event to be compared for its momentous 
consequence with the overthrow of the Persian Empire by Alex- 
ander, with the destruction of Carthage by Rome, with the conquest 



The Jamestown Exposition 633 

of Gaul by Clovis, with the taking of Constantinople by the Turks — 
one might almost say with the discovery of America by Columbus." 

On the Exposition grounds the day was commemorated by the 
salute of 300 guns which had been omitted on the opening day, 
and by a parade and review of soldiers and sailors, there being 
8,000 men in line, while among the reviewers was General Kuroki, 
one of the most famous of the Japanese leaders in the war with 
Russia. At night the warships in the Roads were brilliantly 
illuminated, search lights threw varied colors across the miles of 
water, and a striking water carnival took place, there being in the 
hne reproductions of the vessels that brought the settlers over, 
the barges that landed them, a viking ship, an Indian village, a 
huge sea serpent, etc., there being fifty floats in the unique pro- 
cession. 

Such were the opening ceremonies of the Exposition of 1907, 
presented by Virginia to the world. We may follow by a brief 
account of its character and description of what was there to be 
seen. The situation of the Exposition and the historical interest 
attending it gave it a special character, and in a way it was unique 
among celebrations, as a historical and naval display rather 
than an industrial one. In such exhibitions industrial progress 
usually takes the leading place. Here it was subordinated to 
history and military and naval demonstrations, the grand expanse 
of Hampton Roads offering splendid opportunity for the latter. 
We have already spoken of the great array of war-vessels that were 
present on the opening day. As time went on others joined these, 
while an interesting exhibit was prepared to illustrate the great 
historical event of the locality. This was a reproduction of the 
Merrimac and Monitor, arrangements being made for a mimic 
representation of their famous encounter at intervals during the 
fair, on the very spot where the real battle was fought. 

We have already described the general aspect of the Exposi- 
tion site and the steps that were taken to convert a neglected waste 
into a place of beauty replete with artistic attractions. There 
was so much, however, to be done, and the management met with 
such financial embarrassments, that the work of preparing the 
grounds, erecting the buildings, and installing the exhibits was 
distressingly retarded, it being the middle of July before everything 
was ready and the Exposition fairly complete. For a marked 



634 



The Jamestown Exposition 



feature of this delay the United States Government was responsible, 
the great system of piers projected by it not being completed till 
the date named. Yet the delay was not as embarrassing as might 
be supposed, for it was known that the late summer and autumn 
months would be the time when the great host of visitors would 
appear. 

When all was ready, what was there to show .? Subtending 
the landscape effects and flower parterres, and the artistic embellish- 
ments of the out-of-door scene, was a splendid array of edifices, 
the principal exhibition buildings numbering twenty-five. In 
addition were as many state and six large Government buildings, 
making a total of fifty-six, exclusive of smaller structures and those 

devoted to amuse- 

^ " ^ ment, and the large 

Inside Inn, fronting 
on Hampton Roads, 
and capable of accom- 
modating about 2,000 
guests. 

Landward about 
one thousand yards 
from the harbor in- 
closed by t h e great 
Government pier rose 
the central and most 
beautiful of all the buildings, the splendid Auditorium, a magnif- 
icent structure 236 by 160 feet in dimensions and flanked on either 
side by large companion edifices, one devoted to History, the other 
to Historic Art. Known otherwise as the Administration building 
and as Convention Hall, the great assembly room of this edifice had 
a seating capacity for 4,000 persons, and in it was placed, for the 
benefit of music lovers, a giant organ, claimed to be the largest in 
the world. 

Around this central court were grouped the great exhibition 
palaces of the Exposition. The largest two of these, those of Manu- 
ufacturers and Liberal Arts and of Machinery and Transportation, 
each 550 by 280 feet in area, rose between the Auditorium and the 
Government buildings, the latter fronting on the great piers. In 
the rear of these edifices and flanking the Auditorium and Historic 




THE NORTH CAROLINA BUILDING 



The Jamestown Exposition 



635 



buildings, were placed a number of other large edifices, including 
the States' Exhibit Palace, 500 by 300 feet; the Mines and Metallurgy 
Building, 250 by 100 feet; the Food Products Building, 300 by 




Whole South 
189a— 44,087 
1905—67.129 



1890 


1905 


4.601 


6.513 


3,422 


4,854 


2.203 


4,230 


3,360 


3.972 


2,490 


3.629 


2,942 


3.335 


1,433 


2.988 


1,270 


1,441 


2,289 


3,180 


2,767 


3,576 


2,471 


3,708 


1,740 


4,136 


3,128 


4,256 


1,261 


5,263 



8,710 



12,048] 



MILEAGE OF THE SOUTHERN RAILROADS IN 1890 AND 1905. 
The white sections represent the mileage of 1890 ; the blacic show the mileage ad- 
ded between 1890 and 1905, about 45 per cent of the mileage added in 
1906 was built in the Southern States. Nearly 12,000 miles 
are now in construction or under contract. 

250 feet; and the Agricultural Building 250 by 200 feet. Others of 
smaller size were the Hygienic and Medical, the Pure Food, and 
the Educational Buildings. 



636 The Jamestown Exposition 

The Exposition in its entirety impressed one as a great red and 
white city, a splendid cluster of edifices, flanked by Corinthian 
columns and highly effective in architecture. Surrounding and 
embellishing these rose shade-trees in verdant abundance, groves of 
fruit-trees, and innumerable beds of native flowers and decorative 
plants, the whole composing a vision of floral, umbrageous and 
architectural beauty rarely seen. The green and red flowering 
wall enclosing it all gave it from without the aspect of the garden 
of the Hesperides, in which the golden apples of Hera grew. Directly 
in front of the Auditorium building extended a broad lagoon, into 
which spouted the waters of a dozen fountains, electric lights at 
night causing their spray to sparkle with all the colors of the rainbow. 

The features so far described did not constitute the whole of the 
Exposition. It was not all serious; not all an exploitation of history, 
commerce, and industry. No recent Exposition has been deemed 
complete without its amusement quarter, as exemplified in the 
"Midway Plaisance" of Chicago, the "Pike" of St. Louis, and the 
"Trail" of Portland. The Jamestown Fair had over a mile of such 
features, designated as the "War Path," in which the spectator 
might find instruction and entertainment in intimate association. 
The War Path, lying west of the main buildings and the parade 
ground, occupied a large square and two parallel avenues, which 
were lined with a variety of entertaining features to attract the atten- 
tion of those eager to be amused. No one could miss them, for 
by day the blare of the megaphone called the wandering feet thither, 
and by night they were ht up with thirty search hghts, gleaming from 
a steel tower sixty feet high, with revolving colored screens tinting 
the light with their varying hues. 

Within these grounds were grouped the latest novelties and the 
most complete collection of amusements, huge temporary structures 
being erected for the purpose. Greatest among them was the im- 
mense " loi Ranch," brought from Bliss, Oklahoma, and occupying 
a space as large as two city blocks, its amphitheatre being capacious 
enough to seat 1 8,000 people. Its personnel included a large number of 
Indians and in it all the features of Wild West life were shown. 
Among the Indians present on the War Path was a band of the Pamun- 
kys, part of the feeble remnant of Powhatan's tribe, and with them 
the original ( .?) stone on which John Smith laid his head to be smashed, 
a fate from which he was rescued by the youthful Pocahontas. 



The Jamestown Exposition 637 

Numerous other attractions lined the War Path, including vivid 
representations of the Battles of Gettysburg and Manassas, Generals 
Lee and Stonewall Jackson being the leading figures in the latter. 
Elsewhere might be seen the Screets of Cairo, with attractions that 
seemed copied from the Arabian Nights, the hon tamer with sub- 
missive groups of savage beasts, and other attractions in sufficient 
variety to satisfy the tastes of the most exacting. Best drawing 
among the war reproductions was the Monitor and Merrimac fight, 
having a potent historic interest from the fact that it took place on the 
locality of that world-famous naval contest, while the roar of great 
guns and the flame and smoke of blazing powder gave a vivid aspect 
of reality to mimic war. 

Never was a more magnificent opportunity for aquatic display 
and sports than thatafi^orded by the noble harbor of Hampton Roads. 
In addition to the splendid naval and mercantile marine exhibit, 
the broad waters opened themselves to such events as races of motor 
boats, an international rowing regatta, and a series of yacht races, 
of which no less than twenty, designed for American and foreign 
yachts, were provided for in the plans of the Exposition managers. 
Sir Thomas Lipton had agreed to take part in these with his latest 
boat, and offered a prize for races between boats of the 15 and 20 
foot classes. King Edward offered a cup for boats of the 22-foot 
class. President Roosevelt one for boats between the 27 and ^^ foot 
classes, and the Jamestown cup was open to all boats under the 
forty-foot class. If to these sports we add arrangements for 
pigeon flights, a dog show, balloon and airship ascensions, and the 
like, it will be seen that the item of competitive sports was by no 
means lost sight of. 

Much attention was given to educational exhibits, these occupy- 
ing two buildings on the two sides of the Auditorium. To those 
interested in the progress of learning, there was here an abundantly 
attractive, and conveniently displayed exhibition, the most note- 
worthy of the exhibits being those made by the Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, the Baltimore Woman's College, the Teachers' College of Co- 
lumbia University, and the Ohio, Massachusetts and Virginia Schools. 
Especially striking were the evidences of recent progress in draw- 
ing and designing, manual training and the economies of house- 
hold w^ork. Two other buildings were those devoted to sanitation, so- 
cial science, welfare work and similar objects, and to aeronautics. 



638 The Jamestowa Exposition 

In these various buildings there was little that the Exposition 
visitor has not elsewhere seen, the most notable part of the Jamestown 
Exposition being made by the Government itself. To use the florid 
language of the managers: "The States and Government exhibits 
at this Fair are so far superior to any similar attempt ever made as to 
admit of absolutely no comparison." While this may be saying too 
much, the United States Government distinguished itself in the 
display made in its handsome exhibit palace, of stately colonial 
architecture and the surrounding buildings devoted to colony and 
other products. These afforded an object lesson of the most impres- 
sive character, calhng for a description more in detail. 

In this stately edifice each of the Government Departments put 
on exhibition some of its choicest treasures. The State Department, 
for instance, displayed fac-similes of the great historic pubhc docu- 
ments, from the Declaration of Independence to President Monroe's 
famous message embracing the Monroe Doctrine; the swords of 
famous commanders, the Great Seal of the United States, maps 
showing the expansion of the United States, and many other things 
of historic interest. 

The Treasury Department showed the method of printing the 
paper money of the Government and had a small mint at work dis- 
playing the method of coining money — gold, silver and bronze. It 
also operated a Public Health and Marine Hospital and a Life Saving 
Service. The latter was installed in a station fully equipped, and 
from time to time gave exhibits of the rescue of men from "wrecks" 
out on the waters. 

Very comprehensive were the exhibits of the War and Navy 
Departments, in consonance with the prominence given to the military 
and naval features of the Exposition. Thus the Quartermaster's 
display showed the uniforms worn from the period of the Revolution 
to the present day, and in the matter of transportation it presented 
pack mules, the dog sleds of Alaska, and carabaos or buffaloes of 
the Philippines as examples of the methods of primitive times. The 
Corps of Engineers had models of forts and batteries, and the Ord- 
nance branch of fire arms of every variety, from the automatic pistol 
and magazine rifle to the great rifled cannon. Samples of gun- 
powder were also shown and armor-plate that had been pierced by 
the great modern projectiles. The Signal Corps had illustrations of 
the methods of army signalling, from the old use of smoke by day 



The Jamestown Exposition 639 

and fire by night, to the latest hehograph, telautograph and wire- 
less electric instruments and field telephones. 

The Navy Department complemented the grand display in the 
harbor with models of the chief types of vessels in the naval service, 
from the great battleships, torpedo boats and submarines of recent 
times to the obsolete wooden ships of the past. It also showed a model 
dry-dock, in which a miniature war-vessel was docked and undocked 
every day. As for the great guns used on ship-board, not only 
models, but specimens, of those great guns were shown, accompanied 
with all the smaller varieties of guns, projectiles, torpedoes, and 
the other instruments of destruction used in modern naval 
warfare. 

The Post Office and the Patent Office were not behind their 
fellow departments in interesting exhibits, the former showing in 
every way the methods of collecting and distributing the mails and 
the latter displaying working models of many interesting inventions. 
The Land Office, the Indian Office, and the Pension Office had also 
their objects of interest, while the Geological Survey indicated the 
wealth of the rock surface of the United States by a small museum 
of minerals. 

A splendid collection of moving pictures and stereopticon 
views aided the Interior Department to show the work that is 
being done in the Indian reservations, in the National Parks, and 
the Irrigation operations. Very interesting to lovers of nature was 
the exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution, with its showy exhibit of 
birds and their eggs, of the large game animals of the world, of miner- 
als, of the great fossil animals of the West, and the relics of the oldest 
inhabitants of this continent. It gave especial attention to the 
new art of museum sculpture, and in the center of its exhibit was the 
representation of a large group of Jamestown colonists trading with 
the Indians. 

The buildings displaying the products of the American island 
possessions, Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines, and its Alaskan 
province, held similarly many things of interest, displaying examples 
of the multitudinous products of these districts, tropical in the case 
of the Philippines, arctic in that of Alaska, the whole well adapted to 
illustrate the wide variety of substances produced and articles made 
in the outlying sections of the United States. As for the Lighthouse 
and Wireless Telegraph service, these, as already stated, were in- 



640 The Jamestown Exposition 

stalled at the extremities of the two great piers, lofty towers being 
erected for their needs. 

These piers, each two hundred feet wide and extending nearly 
half a mile out into the waters of Hampton Roads, formed one of 
the most interesting features of the Exposition, with its large enclosed 
harbor, over whose liquid surface boats and steam vessels of various 
kinds were in continual motion, while at night the whole length of the 
piers was lighted by thousands of electric bulbs and from the sum- 
mits of the towers monster search-lights threw broad lines of light 
over water and shore. 

Viewed in all its varied features, the Jamestown Exposition 
must be looked upon as an event of great importance in the history 
of our country, and especially of the South, for it celebrates the 
coming to America of the Cavalier element which played so prominent 
a part in Southern history. It is distinctively a Southern enterprise, 
and one is, within the limits of its plan and purpose, worthy of the 
highest commendation. Its chief benefit to this section of the 
country will be in calHng attention to the immense, but hitherto Httle 
appreciated, natural resources of the Southern States. It should 
have a vital effect in aiding to develop these resources and to divert 
capital and labor to a quarter in which they have long been needed 
and whose material development, while now rapidly progressing, 
still opens vast opportunities to enterprise. 

In much of its early history the South was a sleeping giant, 
unaware of its strength, ignorant of its wealth. Of late years it has 
awakened and is striving toward its true place in our nation's in- 
dustrial evolution. The time must come, is seemingly near at hand, 
when it will win this place, and the South stand in wealth and indus- 
try side by side with the North and West, each a great nation in itself, 
while South, North, and West, in friendly combination and competi- 
tion, seem destined to become, in a national sense, the modern 
Wonder of the World. 



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